The Snowflake Dancer
by HalfMoon11
Summary: Ever since that accident she had was when that voice, she now heard on a constant daily basis, began. And as if things couldn't get any worse, everything that she ever feared and everything that ever brought her down to her knees was slowly coming back into her life. Things were getting bad for her. But then he came strolling right in with that smile of his, not even knocking.
1. Preface

**Hey! So this is my first story for this archive (which I am way excited for!), and I know this first chapter is small, but it's just a preface. The original first chapter I had, well...I felt like I would be dropping a bomb on you guys, so I decided I'd start this story off with something a (whole lot) smaller, you know? Maybe? ;D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own these characters! DreamWorks and Disney have that covered. (Yeah...sorry this isn't done in a very "professional" way.) However the storyline, yes, it's mine.**

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_In a world of her own, she would've preferred to be left alone._

_But she didn't even know this herself until she met her breaking point. She had been standing on thin ice for so long, yet she never truly ever realized it. After all that's happened, you'd think she'd have learned. But something so pure and white can only do so much to fight off the darkness, let alone realize the bad that's going on. And that's where he came in. But because of the war going on, she barely even realized his hands guiding hers along the slick ice she had been walking on._

_It was practically a riot every day in her life. _

_The way people fought against each other got on her nerves. It was either this or that. There was never any choices in between. Either you were something or you were nothing. But somehow she slipped throughout her whole life going unnoticed—somehow she managed to keep a low profile. No one ever truly noticed her. And the majority of people that did just so happen to notice her were all of the wrong kinds of people._

_It was almost as if she were invisible. But that wasn't the case for her. She just knew how to hide._

_But there's a problem with someone who always hides: they run as soon as they're found._

_And that's all they do._

_They run._

_They run, run, run. They run as fast as they can, never once stopping to face their chaser. And the thing is they're way too scared to face their chaser because they've never had to deal with this type of situation before, and they've reached a point in their life where they can no longer face their fears. It's brand new and it scares them. The idea that someone has found them from their safe haven pumps their blood faster, making them take off for flight._

_They may take a moment to glance behind them when they're getting tired and ready to find a new safe haven, but then they'll see a dark shadow following right after them and they continue running. If only they knew that this dark shadow was their own silhouette following in their footsteps. There was never an escape from your own shadow._

_Now for what happened to their chaser, well, the runner would never realize that the chaser had long stopped running after them. But the runner never would know or figure this out because they'd still see that shadow following them. And the whole time they would never notice who they were really running from._

_What she never knew was that her time was running out. Someone was going to find her, and it was going to be soon. And it was going to be someone that actually cared... Which the idea of someone holding her heart scared here, which was exactly why she kept her heart lucked up tight._

_She never was the type to share who she was with anyone, yet somehow he was able to make his way through her locked doors. He was able to reach to her heart, and his grip was so fierce and strong, yet all at the same time gentle and quiet. And when the moment came for her to discover that he had somehow crept his way past the locks and guards she had protecting her frozen heart, it scared her. When the moment came for her to tell him to back off, he wasn't too easygoing with her. She's never had anyone willing to hold on so tight before. _

_But what did that matter?_

_He would soon be forced to let go of her—he be free to go back to the way his life originally was—and there would be no saving her. It would be too late…she would eventually allow the darkness to swallow her up, and she'd be too far deep for anyone to rescue her._

_Her time was up._

_The ice was beginning to crack…_

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**So tomorrow or the day after, I think I'll post the official "first" chapter...**

**Anyway! :D Thanks for checking this story out! And I hope you all will stay tuned for more and stick with me through to the end!**

**Favorite, follow, review - do whatever you're feeling to do - I'd love it all, and again thanks for reading!**


	2. Like a Butterfly or Like a Spider

**Okay, so here it is! And just a little FYI, for the page breakers, I am going to be using a single period, and not the horizontal line thingy.**

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Breathing in deeply, she skated forward as she let go of her breath and broke free off of the cold ice, her whole body floating parallel to the ice through the air as if she had just suddenly grown wings of her own. But she knew all too well that these so-called "wings" were dead and that she'd eventually fall—she only hoped the fall wouldn't be too big of a drop…

As soon as the beating music blaring loudly from the speakers throughout the ice skating rink sounded off the cue of a loud _crash! (_sounding much like a glass cup or vase had just fallen and hit the cold hard ground) her snow white skates hit the ground. The timing was perfect, as usual, and her performance landing…well, it was almost perfect. _Almost_—meaning: both of her skates landed on the glazed ice ground—that was a plus—except during her process of going into a spin, she had lost her balance and her elegant frame came crashing down; she could only assume the reason as to why this happened was that since her skates hit the ground, the rest of her body felt the need to complete this movement so she was flat on the ground like a pancake.

"Wh-whoa!" she panicked as her graceful frame came crashing down, also causing her to take her performance with her down as well. Groaning, she squeezed her eyes shut and pursed her lips as the music was shut off. "So much for being _graceful,_" she gritted as she pressed her hands against the cold floor in attempt to bring herself back up to save the little dignity she had left since her fall.

Sighing as she struggled to come to a stand, she could hear her ice skating coach already mumbling and muttering all of the mistakes she had made during her performance from a mile away. Sucking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes waiting for the blow. Her coach always drilled down on her hard after each practice. It was only a matter of seconds now...

_Five, four, three, two, one—_

"Elsa! What in the world was that?"

She tensed up and slowly began to skate over to where her coach was standing on the other side of the wall, where there was no ice.

"I mean—what the heck?!" he continued. "Elsa, what happened back there? You were nearly doing everything perfectly! Of course, there are a few things you do need to perfect," he muttered off to the side as a note, "but that's not my concern!—as long as that butterfly jump is flawed—argh! Why can't you just make the landing? You've got the perfect parallel jump, your position and grace is absolutely beautiful, but then all of that beauty gets shoved down to the ground in a messy, _messy _mud pile as soon as you make that transition from your landing to your spin!"

Elsa nodded her head at each word as she chewed on her lip tensely. She slowly brought her left hand up to hold her right arm, but stopped her motion when she realized how red her hands were from the fall. And not to mention they were still wet. The whole front of her body was wet. She frowned in dismay as she brushed herself off. She didn't make the transition from the landing to the spin the way she had hoped she would ever since she had slapped her hand down on her alarm clock this morning. She continued to brush as her legs and arms as the pain of the fall began to sting and bite away at her fair skin. The cold didn't bother her much or play a big role in her discomfort from the fall since she was used to it; ever since she was little she's been living with the cold practically every day of her life. In a way, the chillness of the air was her friend.

"Do you understand?" her coach spoke firmly.

She snapped her head up to look him face to face. "Yes, Coach Sprinx," she exhaled. "I understand."

"I know this is from the aftermath of your absence in skating since your accident…but that was six months ago, Elsa. You used to be so good with everything!—the jumps, spins, turns…just everything!" Coach Sprinx strained with a sigh. "You've been working on this jump for the past month! Before you know it, that single number will become more than just one! And you know we don't have forever… You're only just barely getting your introduction to your solo completed with perfection, and we've got only so much time to get through the rest of the choreography to get your solo perfected! Your competition is coming up, and what, we only have five or six months left for you to get through your whole dance? Elsa, I know this is hard for you, but I need you to let go of whatever is holding you back—whatever fears you may have developed about skating—and just allow yourself to go with the flow."

Coach Sprinx pat Elsa on the back as he said, "Now get out of here. Your practice is over. And make sure you get a good night's rest tonight, and eat well…and I'll see you tomorrow bright and early, here at six, okay? And Elsa, remember: you've been skating since you were a little girl, and even then you were amazing. You've got raw talent. You just need to believe that, okay? Now don't stress too much about it, alright?"

She nodded her head with her gaze frozen to the ground, and Coach Sprinx smiled with a hint of empathy written across his face before walking off.

By the time he had walked quite a distance and had turned a corner, Elsa pursed her lips, breaking her still composure, bringing the palms of her hands up to her forehead, and crouched over as her skates began to glide her smoothly off on the ice and away from the wall. _Why couldn't she get that jump down? _Why was she having such a hard time? She was so frustrated. What was the big deal? She had that jump…she had that landing…at least she should've had that landing.

This morning she was so confident she would get that down. She even looked herself in the mirror and told herself seven times that she would make the landing and get that transition spin down.

Suddenly the lights that lit up the rink shut off, but it wasn't pitch dark. The windows from the entrance doors allowed the light that reflected off of the snow outside to brighten the room a little, so she wasn't alone in pure darkness.

Elsa slowly fixed her poise after she had eased up the tension in her body that overflowed with stress and frustration. Taking in a deep, soothing breath, she glanced over to the clock which read 6:00 P.M.

Normally she had ice skating practices early in the morning before school started, but since these past two weeks she had school off for the holidays, the time changed to 4:30 P.M. She would normally practice for at least an hour or more if possible, and if she could, she would practice for days on end. But because her coach wouldn't let her practice that long, the longest she would ever practice for would be a little over an hour; rarely would she ever get to two full hours. And it wasn't the idea of "practice makes perfect" that made her want to constantly be out on the ice in her skates, it was the idea that the more she would do something she loved, she would be able to embrace it and somehow become one with it…she would bond with it…and the sad thing was was that she _used_ to actually have that. She used to be more than just a girl that loved to ice skate. She used to be more than just a figure skater.

And now, here she was, falling face down on the ice. She used to understand everything about ice skating. She used to feel everything about it.

It felt like she had lost her touch, or something. She didn't glide on the ice like she used to always. She didn't feel the ice carrying her along its surface anymore; all she felt was herself forcing her way across the ice. It didn't feel right. She was still able to do some moves and fancy tricks on the ice and somewhat make them look the slightest bit audience-worthy. But that didn't mean anything. That just meant that she was good, and had had some practice.

Just because she had the title of being an ice skater didn't mean she was actually who she was seen to be. She was no ice skater…if anything, she was a disgrace to the sport. It was like finding a book claiming the title of being able to show you the future, yet when you opened it, all you would find would be blank empty pages of nothing; it didn't show you the future. It was only a false statement that somehow titled the book to be what it supposedly was, or was intended to be, or was hoped to eventually become—yet it never did fulfil to that title—and no one ever bothered to change that title.

How was she supposed to become a professional figure skater if she didn't even connect with it anymore? She _did _once have that connection…but ever since that accident …

Elsa shook her head. She didn't need to reminisce on those memories. Those memories only made her bones ache and her body cringe. Those memories brought back the day she had suddenly lost connection with the ice, and herself, and what it meant to be a figure skater.

Slowly she began to push herself, gliding on the ice as if she were hauling a heavy ball and chain behind her. By the time she had made it to the exit to the ice rink, she closed the entrance that lead to the icy grounds and bent over to take her skate shoes off. When she had them off, she brought them in front of her, stared at it for only a moment, and shook her head. Maybe tomorrow she'd get down that butterfly jump.

When she had managed to gather all of her belongings and had shoved her skate shoes in her light blue sports duffle bag, along with placing her white ankle snow boots on, she marched up to the glass doors. Her hand never made it as close as an inch to the door, though, for as soon as she spotted her reflection, she couldn't help but stop and stare.

As she examined herself up and down, dressed in her plain, crystal blue practice dress, a small frown tugged at the edges of her lips and she forced herself forward and pushed open the door, followed by the next set of doors. _You probably will never get that stupid jump down, _a voice had echoed in her head. But she immediately brushed the thought off as if it were dust.

The cold immediately hugged at her body like it were a blanket when she stepped foot outside, and her exhaled air could be seen. She took a moment to stare at the foggy air that would puff up after each breath she took. Slightly smiling, she began heading on her way back home. Alright: she'd get the stupid jump down tomorrow.

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The very next morning Elsa was up and about, practicing at the skating rink. The time read 6:45 A.M., and all she could hear was her coach shouting out at her, telling her all of these mistakes and problems she needed to fix. This only kept pulling at her heartstrings and she could feel her body tensing up out of frustration. Today was clearly going to be a long day. How in the world was she expected to be able to properly focus on school when she had better things, like practicing her solo for the upcoming competition? Oh how her school days were going to murder her. And if not that, well…they'd be ripping her mind apart, piece by piece, like taking apart a giant, billion pieced puzzle that had finally been completed within the time span of seventeen years.

"Elsa! Straighten your legs!" Coach Sprinx shouted.

She pursed her lips as she immediately made the corrections.

"Your arms! What are they doing?! You're not trying to make this look like a horror film! You're trying to make this look elegant and graceful with a hint of sadness! Relax, Elsa! I can see you're tense!"

She then tried to make an attempt at loosening her arms, but that only made her muscles tighten even more.

"Okay, you've got this! Make that land and transition for me!" he yelled when it was near the time for her to do the butterfly jump. She had to frown at the thought of the two simple words of "butterfly jump." In her mind the jump didn't deserve to be called a butterfly jump—especially when she was doing this jump—really it should be called the black widow jump, for whenever she was doing it, she would always land in a way that made her legs feel and look like the legs of a spider.

Sucking in a deep breath, she threw herself into the air, the whole time the thought of how should would land in the most disgraceful way ever, stuck in her mind. When her skates touched the surface of the ice, just like how she thought she would land became a reality. So much for completing her main goal to get this jump down…

Sighing, she continued on with her skating when she heard her coaches' voice telling her to just continue on. She could already see him pinching the bridge of his nose the way he normally did when something got so terribly messed up; he used to never do this to her. The only times she would see him do this was normally to his other students. He would oftentimes invite her to come to some of his lessons to be an example and help those who were trying to learn new moves or were trying to perfect their moves. She used to be the best out of everyone…now she wasn't even sure where she stood. Probably at the very end of the scale now…

This ice dance she was practicing for—she knew the whole dance by heart and she had listened to the whole entire song she skated to more than enough to have it memorized; she knew the beats she needed to hit and she knew what her timing was supposed to be fairly well. The only problem was she just didn't seem to know how to do the more advanced moves with the appearance of effortless and undefined beauty and grace anymore. Maybe she just wasn't cut out for this solo like she used to be six months ago, before that accident, anymore. Why was her coach even having her do this solo for the competition? She wasn't even at the top of the scale—not even _close _to being at the top of the scale. If anything, she was at the very, rock bottom end of it, and for her to be able to claim her podium at the top would take more than a zillion years, probably.

As she began to cross her feet in attempt to cross chasse before she would have to go into arabesque, her skate blades ran into each other and she nearly fell over. Thankfully, however, she managed to somehow save herself from the fall that really would've made her lose all of her dignity for good. "_Oh, my gosh_…" She groaned. Just watch, before you know it she wouldn't even know how to do the basics of figure skating in a way that wouldn't make her appear like a five year old child anymore.

By the time the music began to come to an end like a lingering echo barely fading away, yet never truly coming to a complete silence, Elsa held still in the pose she was supposed to end in, with her arms both up and slowly falling down like they were supposed to be fading, much like the role of her character in the solo, who was supposed to be fading as well.

In her dance, she was supposed to be a beautiful white swan princess that eventually turned black and became nothing but a graceful nightmare in the end, and never turned back. It was supposed to be a tragedy. The storyline of her ice skating dance was supposed to be a little based off of the storyline to Swan Lake, but not quite. The idea of the theory of the black swan was also behind the inspiration to her dance. She had originally choreographed this dance by herself, and had chosen the music herself as well, just for this competition, way back when she wasn't stuttering her moves and was actually good—when _she _actually considered herself good—even great. She had created this dance before her accident.

In truth she was actually sort of glad her coach wasn't asking her to give up her dance and allow some other figure skater to do her dance for her. She had this pride that made her only want to allow _herself _to perform this piece, for she was the only one who knew how to express it in all of the right ways.

When she was sure the music was officially over, she then broke free from her performance mode and turned around, almost a little fearful to see how her coaches' face would look. Probably one of total disgust. Who knows how many mistakes she had made! It wouldn't be a surprise if she found her coach lying on the ground, seeming to have fainted from her atrocious performance. No one needed to tell her that she wasn't doing that great of a job… She could feel that she wasn't doing that great.

Elsa's breath hitched in her throat when her coach was giving her the stare while _too _pinching the bridge of his nose. Oh gosh. This was not good. Not good at all. This was even _more_ worsethan having him faint or drop dead from her performance!

Taking in a deep breath, she began to skate herself towards him, twiddling her fingers together. Pursing her lips, she looked at her coach with ocean blue eyes that were overflowing with fear. She wasn't sure whether or not she felt like she wanted to cry or not, but whatever feeling was tugging and causing her eyes to slightly start to heat up was really freaking her out a bit.

"Coach Sprinx…?" Elsa hesitantly called out to him, causing him to shake his head a little. She immediately began to bit down on her lower lip. She felt like crying in a corner.

Coach Sprinx sighed and readjusted his white branded cap while putting on a smile. "It's okay, Elsa. We still have tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and so forth. Just…don't stress too much, alright? I think the stress you've been forming over these few practices have really started to get inside of your head because it's really starting to show. Don't worry, alright? You'll get this down. You know, there's a reason why I haven't cut your solo out of this competition."

"Wait, what?" she blinked, nearly having a heart attack. He considered having her solo cut from the competition? "I-I-I…" She sighed deeply and dropped her gaze. She wouldn't blame him if he did end up cutting her solo out… "I understand if you want to throw my part out," she mumbled softly.

"No, no, Elsa, don't be ridiculous—I'm not going to cut your solo, alright? Although, if worst does come to worst, I may have to. But I don't think I will have to because you have something special, Elsa. Now all you need to do is believe you can do it." He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. He grinned at her before speaking, "Now get out of here. You have school to get ready for."

She slowly nodded her head, pursing her lips, barely able to pull off a smile at him. "Okay, Coach…"

He then straightened his matching jacket to his navy blue sweatpants and waved goodbye to her, saying his wife was expecting him to pick up the kids for school or something. Elsa waved him off before making her way to the exit of the ice rink.

Quickly glancing to the clock, she made no effort whatsoever to rush herself. It was three minutes away from being 7:00 A.M. School started at 7:45, and it took her twenty minutes to walk from here to her house. She didn't take that much time to get ready like some of the girls she knew at her school, and the drive was only about five minutes to her high school, so she had time.

When she finally exited the building all ready to go, she had to roll her eyes at the jet black jeep that was now passing her by. The driver was clearly turning his head to stop and stare at her. And even when he was past her, he was still turning his head to look at her. She grimly grinned and gave him a small wave before he seemed to have hit the gas a little. She heaved out a sigh, barely getting annoyed. This reaction from most drivers was normal. They gave her this look because it was winter, and that she wasn't wearing the warmest clothing. They were looking at her like she was crazy or some freak because the thoughts that were clearly running through their minds were: _What the heck is that girl doing out in the cold dressed like that?! Does she want to catch pneumonia or something?!_

Yeah…this was exactly what they were thinking because someone even decided they'd have the "curtesy" to shouting it out to her as they drove by. Ugh. It was even some boys from another high school, too, that hollered this out to her. In fact, it was her high school's biggest rival, where these boys came from—and if she remembered correctly, these boys were on the basketball team?—wait, no, it was baseball—or was it football—no, no, it was baseball—not that that meant anything, however—she wasn't too spirited with the whole rivalry thing, so it didn't matter to her as to who they were. She didn't take their words to heart at all because she knew so much better than to allow some jerks to get to her. Especially when these boys meant nothing to her, and she meant nothing to them.

Pursing her lips, she then rolled her eyes as she swiftly unzipped her duffle bag and yanked out her white winter jacket. Quickly zipping her bag back up, she gently set it down as she stuffed her arms down the holes meant for each of her arms. As she readjusted and fitted her jacket, she placed her bag back on her left shoulder. She'd rather not receive any unwanted remarks or comments from random strangers who knew absolutely nothing about her, and that included the stares they would give her as well. Today she just wanted to walk home in peace and comfort. Heaving out a sigh, she began to pull out a few pins that held her white-blonde hair in the braided bun she had it up in for her practice. Soon enough, her hair fell down to the usual French braid she wore and she ran her fingers through her bangs, pushing them back and out of her face like she normally did.

As she headed on her way home, she couldn't help but admire the glittering snow. Despite the fact that the grey clouds covered the sky and sun, it was still fairly bright. The empty sidewalk she walked on was clear of snow, only having a few frozen splotches here and there from the melted snow.

Readjusting the black shoulder strap from her bag, she then noticed a boy off to her left. Her pacing slowed down and she contorted her face as she tried to get a better look.

The boy was merely throwing snowballs at the trunks of trees. As she continued to stare, she eventually came to a complete halt as soon as her realization dawned on her: he was quite a distance from the leafless trees. And he, quite amazingly, was hitting each trunk, straight on, splat right in the center. How in the world…?

Elsa's jaw slightly gaped as she watched the show in awe. Her boots crunched in the crisp snow as she went to hide behind a fairly large tree trunk to get a closer look, and when she gently placed her hands on the cool bark that felt somewhat soggy, she froze. What exactly _was_ she doing? This was completely ridiculous. Was she seriously spying on a boy? She mentally slapped herself. "C'mon, get a grip, Elsa…" She whispered to herself in encouragement for herself to leave. Oh but this guy had fantastic aim!—how could she not watch? She's never seen this before…ever. He clearly knew how to throw…

And that's when she froze.

_He knew how to throw…_

As those words echoed throughout her head like a ghost haunting, her cyan blue eyes widened. Gasping loudly, she instantly jumped away from her spot and went back on the sidewalk, trying to act inconspicuous as much as she possibly could, and slowly began to walk. This boy wasn't just _any _ordinary guy, sadly enough. As it turned out, this boy was the infamous baseball pitcher to her school's rivalry high school.

"Of course!" she huffed to herself when she looked at his hair. It was white. How could she _not _know who this guy was? He was none other than—

"Jack!" a voice suddenly hollered.

Elsa nearly had a heart attack when she suddenly realized a black SUV pulling up to her side of the street, coming towards her from the opposite direction she was heading in. She began to chew on her midtone fuschia pink lips when she saw a bunch of guys that looked awfully, painfully familiar coming out of the black, glistening car when it came to a stop—thank goodness it didn't stop right next to her!—or else she really would've dropped dead. As her look of horror deepened, her walking pace immediately slowed down even more than from the speed she was already going at, which was already abnormally slow enough for her.

She so desperately wanted to run…

And as she took that idea of running away into thought, it didn't sound too bad. And the more and more she thought about it, it began to sound like a brilliant idea—almost even genius!—but that's when she had to stop herself. _No! _she scolded herself in her mind. She couldn't! How absolutely ridiculous would she look to them from a distance, running? Oh gosh…and she wasn't exactly a _grand_ runner…no! She was a figure skater! There was a big difference!

Plus, these were the same guys that decided to have the "curtesy" to tell her that she would catch pneumonia from the cold and that she was crazy!—and she remembered clearly that the driver was none other than Jack Frost!—the stuck-up moron she just so happened to be staring at earlier. She didn't need any more of their stupid comments to trail after her like a shadow! And not that she really cared what they thought of her…it was just that she didn't want to have to deal with their tyranny for the rest of her life in high school and possibly even college, which hopefully that wouldn't ever become a case. These guys, she knew for a well-known fact that they _would_ do this kind of thing.

"Okay, Elsa, just breathe, relax, and act normal," she pep-talked to herself. She was going to do this. She was going to stay on the sidewalk and _walk _on it like a normal person. "And don't make any eye contact," she had to add on as she noticed the group of boys all heading to the black car, including Jack. "You've got this…"

Soon enough, the pitch black car pulled off from the side of the road ever so slowly and began to head in her direction.

She began to shake her head. "No…no, no, no, no—okay, just kidding! You don't got this!" And with that said, she quickly jumped off of the sidewalk to her left and hid behind a large tree trunk. She was quite positive they didn't notice her (at least that's what she hoped), for she was somewhat quite a ways away from them, so she only figured they probably didn't notice her. Plus, lucky her, people like her normally don't get spotted too easily. Some certain people you would be able to spot a thousand miles away in a large crowd, whereas for her, well, it was quite different. She could be right next to someone, out in the wide open, and they wouldn't even notice her. It was as easy and simple as that.

Pursing her lips, her eyes began to glance all over the place, and she held her breath, waiting for the sound of the car to pass her by. When what felt like forever had passed her by, but was really only a few seconds, and she was about to come out of her hiding, the rolling tires of a car reached her ears and she froze. While the rolling tires faded in, then faded out, indicating it was gone, she waited a little longer, just in case, before emerging out of her hiding.

By the time she had emerged out and had found that the coast was clear, she could only lean back against the cold tree trunk in relief. Blowing out through her lips, she heaved herself off of the tree and carefully stepped in her sunken footprints back to the sidewalk. The cool ice air didn't do much help for her, for she could feel herself burning up—possibly even start to sweat under her thick jacket. As she began her walk briskly, she couldn't help but glance behind her to see if there was any black SUV parked off to the other side of the road or anywhere near.

Shaking her head, she brought her gaze forward, noticing how close she was coming to the few trees that had snow splattered on their centers. She slowed her walking for a few moments, but then abruptly shook her head and continued on. She's already had enough to think about for the morning at the moment. Right now she just needed to get home—somewhere she felt safe and sound. She didn't want to deal with the excitement that came from having to deal with people from rivalry schools…

If only she had remembered that things rarely ever go the way you want it to, the events that were slowly creeping their way through to happen wouldn't have taken her by surprise.

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**M'kay, I know, I know. This chapter isn't all that exciting...but I hope it was enjoyable to read to some level. This chapter is barely getting the story officially started - I promise things should start to pick up and get more exciting after this chapter.**

**And just so you all know, I don't ice skate, however I am doing my homework about figure skating and such, so...the details about ice skating should be mostly, somewhat correct. ;D And even though I'm not pro at ice skating, I do do dance, and that does relate to figure skating in many ways, so there's that... ;P**

**Anyways, thanks so much for reading! - and expect an update soon! :) **


	3. Fake It 'Til You Make It

**Thank you so, so much for the reviews! And thanks for favoriting/following and all of that shebang...! :D**

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"Anna! Come on!" Elsa yelled, trying her best to keep her cool at the fact that her sister had slept in, again. But she couldn't really blame her, for they did just have a long break off of school, and it was always hard to break those sleeping-in habits for some. She sighed as she grabbed hold of the end of the stair rail, clenching her teeth.

During the time she spent while waiting for her younger sister, she had preoccupied herself with picking at the straps of her off-white canvas backpack. But that didn't keep her eyes from wandering over to her light blue duffle bag off in the corner by the front door.

She pursed her lips at the thought of how her practice went earlier this morning. _Gosh, you did so bad! You were horrible! _a voice echoed off in her mind. She sighed miserably and turned her head away abruptly, her loose braid swinging a little from the harsh movement. Closing her eyes, she reopened them down to her ankle strap flats. The heel half of her shoes, including the strap, were white, whereas the other pointed half of it was a light blue. For some odd reason she seemed to favor these chilled colors the most out of any spectrum of colors there was out there. Maybe it was because they reminded her the most of winter…or, of course, it was just her style. But who said there had to be only one reason?

"Oh, my gosh! I'm so sorry Elsa! We're gonna be so late!" Anna's voice echoed from upstairs. Elsa snapped her head up to the top of the stairs where her sister, seemingly out of breath, stood, struggling to stuff two notebooks in her brown leather messenger bag. "Ugh! Go in! Go in, you stupid, dumb…" Anna grunted loudly as she made a few more attempts at stuffing her notebooks inside her bag. "Oh, my gosh!" she huffed. "I said, _go in—!_"

Elsa winced a little, but she couldn't help but manage a small half-grin when her sister's face of distress instantly changed to one of pure astonishment. "Ha! I can't believe I just did that!" Anna held up her brown leather bag in front of her as if to show the whole world her amazing accomplishment. But in that same second, Elsa cleared her throat loudly with her eyebrows raised. "Huh?" Anna peered down at her.

"School?" Elsa said, having to only say that one simple word to get her sister back into heart attack mode.

"Ah! School! Right!" Anna freaked, panicking as she came rushing down the glistening white staircase, her strawberry-blonde hair, that was braided in two pigtails, bouncing at each step like sticks pounding on a drum set. When she finally landed right next to Elsa, she merely smiled sheepishly, laughing with unease. "Sorry…"

Elsa rolled her eyes but grabbed her sister's wrist and rushed out the front door quickly. When the two sisters had made it to the baby blue Volkswagen Beetle parked out on their icy driveway successfully without slipping, to their own amazement, they couldn't help but exclaim to one another that neither of them didn't actually fall for once as soon as they entered the freezing car.

"Wow! That was a first!" Anna exclaimed as she immediately reached out to turn on the heater and put it on full blast as soon as Elsa had turned the engine on.

"Oh, I know, right? You actually didn't fall! " Elsa joked as she turned her head and began to back the car out of the driveway, but her smile slipped away when she realized she had been falling out on ice practically every single day herself. What she was saying was true, and normally it _was _her little sister that slipped on ice—well, at least the ice on the driveway—for herself, well…her slipping business happened out on the ice rink. She would've preferred if she slipped on public ice, instead of ice meant for something more than just sliding and gliding around on. It was actually a little humiliating to her when she thought about it.

So she could keep her balance and manage herself perfectly fine when she was trying to avoid ice, yet when she wanted to be out on ice, she would always slip and fall? Now how exactly did that make sense? It definitely didn't fit together nicely like a puzzle.

"Hey!" Anna piped up. "There's always a first to everything, right?"

Elsa pursed her lips into a thin line before slowly nodding her head. "Right," she smiled, fully aware of the fact that it was a complete fraud on her lips; it felt as if she had just put on a mask, except for just her lips. "There's always a first…" She mumbled.

There was also always a last…but not for her.

It seemed like that "last" wouldn't ever happen for her with her ice skating falling problems. She sighed and turned the blazing heated air, which seemed to be melting her skin right off, down low.

"You're warm enough, right?" she turned to Anna, hand still on the crank that controlled the force of air that would get blown out.

Nodding her head, Anna pulled her seatbelt on, shuddering at the cold touch. As she exhaled out, her warm breath appeared in the chilled air in a puff of smoke. She grinned and began blowing warm air out for the fun of it.

Elsa left her hand on the crank for a moment, half tempted to change the temperature of the air to what felt more comfortable and suitable for herself, but she shoved the urge away and forced herself to deal with the warmth. In all honesty, it was way too hot for her liking. She felt like she was in a sauna of some sort wearing the wrong type of clothing. She could feel her arms starting to sweat a little in the black fitting blazer she had slipped on over her loose, white embroidered sheer tank. It didn't feel right at all.

It was winter. It was _supposed _to be cold. It was supposed to be chilly. And of course sometimes freezing. You weren't supposed to be _sweating _in the cold. But, of course, she had to remind herself that not everyone had a liking for the cold as much as herself. She may as well be the only one alive that liked the cold. And she wasn't sure yet if she liked being the only one. The nice thing about being the only one, however, was that you were your own ruler. You were your own queen. Isolation wasn't exactly what she would say to be known as the best palace or kingdom, but it was better than nothing.

.

"C'mon, Anna! Run! I didn't speed over the speed limit for nothing!" Elsa hollered with a wide grin down to her sister, who was barely starting to head up the first flight of snow-covered steps.

"One second! I'm coming! I just want to make sure I don't slip—it's already bad enough that I got some snow down these shoes! I'd rather not have to deal with wet pants as well, too!" Anna whined as she pulled her long sleeves over her reddening hands. "This hoodie is doing nothing whatsoever to block out the cold! I feel like I'm wearing a jacket made out of tissue paper!"

"It's okay, Anna, just breathe, okay? You'll be inside of the school building soon," Elsa lightly laughed as she skipped up the second and last flight of snow-covered steps.

When she made it to the top, she waited for her sister, trying her best to control her patience. They probably had two or less minutes now until the tardy bell rang. If they booked it to their classes, they might just be able to make it in time…

"C'mon, Anna…" She breathed out in an unheard encouragement. She began to bite her bottom lip in anticipation as Anna neared her and now only had a few steps before she was on the same level as her.

By the time Anna had finally made it to the top, Elsa rushed over to the doors and opened it, Anna following her in the same pursuit. When the two sisters made it past the second set of doors now for-real entering inside of the school building, a burst of warm air flooded all around them, chasing the cool air that had stuck to them off.

Elsa gasped silently, wanting to chase after the cold air and ask it to stay with her. As soon as the cold began to run away from the heat, she began to feel a little lonely and uncomfortable without the cold constantly hugging at her body. She felt weird, not having the one thing she was so used to around her. She felt out of place.

Anna, on the other hand, shared the exact opposite emotion and exhaled out a pleasured sigh. "Oh, my gosh! That felt wonderful!"

Closing her frozen blue eyes, Elsa shook her head lightly, but managed a grin. _It's okay…you'll be fine _she whispered silently to herself. And in that same instant, her small, grim smile faded and she beckoned for Anna to follow. As they rushed their way down the hall, their loose hair strands flying in the wind, the school bell rung and they soon came to an intersection where one had to keep going straight and the other had to turn to their right. It was time for them to split up. Halting in their run, the two sisters locked eyes.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Anna puffed out, now holding her leather bag against her chest; it was easier to run with it not bouncing against her legs like a basketball.

Elsa huffed out a laugh. "Yeah, I'll see you at lunch," she exaggerated, acting like it'd be a millennium until they saw each other.

"Ha, yeah," Anna grinned.

After they laughed it off, they both went in their separate ways, Elsa being the one who needed to go straight. It took her a moment, but eventually Elsa soon realized that she was late, and that she probably should start running instead of leisurely walking like it was a walk in the park. As she broke out into a run, she made a hard turn, nearly slipping on the small puddle of what she assumed to be melted snow. She cursed her flats for not exactly being the gripping type and instead being the sliding type, but shook it off when she recovered from her almost-knee-bruising fall and ran past a few classroom doors before finally making it to her destination.

By the time she had made it to her first period classroom, she abruptly hit the brakes to her moving legs and moved out of sight from the wide open door where she could hear her classmates chatting up a storm inside the room. She could only assume that Ms. Faux, their math teacher, was taking attendance, and if not that, then she was outside of the classroom getting some copies from the copy center. She really hoped it was the latter. That way, if it was the latter, she may be able to get away with her being late.

As she composed herself and quickly checked her hair, she took in a deep breath and walked inside the classroom, the loud chattering immediately filling her head almost as if she had just put on headphones. Pursing her lips, she glanced to the teacher's desk and soon all around the room, only to let out a sigh of relief: the teacher wasn't anywhere in the room.

What _luck…_ She was going to be able to get away with her lateness. It's not like she was _that _late anyway, really. She was probably just a few mere seconds late…okay, maybe a little more than that…but still.

She sighed and headed over to her assigned seat. As she slid her backpack off her shoulders, she slumped down in her seat like she was a deflating balloon, and began to pull out the needed necessities for this class. When she had that done, she grabbed hold of her pencil and began to tap it out of boredom. After a few seconds of that, she dropped her pencil and bent over down to her folded up dark skinny jeans, beginning to pick at the sticking snow that had attached themselves to the bottom of her pants.

"Elsa!" an overly excited voice exclaimed, causing Elsa to jump.

Instantly she snapped her head up to the voice and smiled. "Oh, hey, Rapunzel..."

"I'm so sorry about this morning!" the short, frisky-haired brunette apologized. "I did arrive at your house, but when none of you girls came out, I-I had no choice but to leave—please forgive me!" Rapunzel clasped her hands together, bowing her head a little. "I'm so sorry for leaving you—it's just I couldn't be late to another one of my classes again—I was told that one more tardy would earn me detention!"

Elsa shook her head as she straightened her body out. "No, you're totally fine. Don't worry about it. I'd hate it if we were the cause to you getting detention."

"Yeah, but—"

"It's fine. Remember, it's me and Anna that are carpooling with you, and not the other way around. I'd like to think you have a say in whenever you can leave," she slightly smiled, dropping her gaze down to her hands that now held little snow scuffs from her jeans. She couldn't help but allow her lips to slowly pull down into a frown as she saw the snow start to melt in her hands.

"A-Are you sure? I mean, I feel terrible…" Rapunzel began to pull at her short brown hair.

Elsa softly smiled and rolled her eyes over to Rapunzel. "Really, it's _fine_… We're friends—it's not that big of a deal." She confirmed, suddenly realizing something different about the sulking girl next to her. "Hey, you got a haircut!" She could now only feel a small puddle of water remained in her hand, and she quickly flipped her hand over, wiping the water off with her pants.

"Huh?" Rapunzel stopped pulling at the bundle of hair she'd been tugging at. "My hair…? Oh, yeah! I did! Last Friday!" she brightened up.

Elsa let out a sigh of relief on the inside, seeing Rapunzel allowing the subject to change. She knew that if she didn't change the topic soon, Rapunzel would've gone on and on about how horrible and sorry she felt, and the next thing you knew, she'd be coming over to bring cookies and all of these other sweet treats until she felt like she had paid the debt, even though there was never a debt in the first place. And really she didn't need to be saying anything bad about herself like that. It wasn't her fault. Elsa knew Rapunzel well enough to know that she was a good person. She deserved good things in life. But how often _did _good people get good things?

"Oh, so not that long ago?"

Rapunzel nodded in response with bright hazel eyes.

"Wow, it looks great! I love it," Elsa smiled, trying to figure out if her smile was really genuine. She felt like she was lying—and it wasn't her words that were false… "Do you have any plans to dye your hair that blonde you used to always have ever since, umm…last year, was it?" She began to bite her bottom lip as she went through her memories. She was pretty sure that it was last year at the very start of their junior year that Rapunzel had started to grow out her hair to its original color.

Ever since she could remember, Rapunzel had always had blonde hair. Well, since fourth grade, Rapunzel had always had blonde hair. She was just one of those girls that could pull off having long blonde hair and looking absolutely natural and not to mention stunning in it. And surprisingly Elsa had never once really had a single ounce of jealousy about it. But jealously never was the monster that ate away at her—now was it?—it was the monster that never got even as close as a mile to her.

If there was anything or anyone that tore down her walls of protection, it was herself. She was her greatest enemy. But she was completely blind to this—completely unaware of it. It's never occurred to her that the one person she should watch out for was the girl who owned the reflection she saw in the mirror every day when she was by herself.

"You think?" Rapunzel pulled her hair out of her face and behind her ears, a little doubtful.

Elsa laughed lightly. "Yes!" she exclaimed, rolling her eyes a little. "It looks amazing, okay?"

Rapunzel pursed her lips, but smiled. "Alright…"

"Alright, class, off to your assigned seats!" Ms. Faux suddenly spoke up, catching everybody's attention and cooperation. "I'm going to be taking role, so… Yeah—that's right, get back to your assigned seats."

Grumbles and snickers could be heard throughout the classroom by the boys and girls in class, but Ms. Faux paid no mind to it, merely heading over to her desk and taking a seat at her white laptop.

Sighing, Rapunzel looked to Elsa and made an attempt at optimism. "Yay, it's time for…math…" Her voice dropped a little at the last word, but either way, Elsa laughed and shooed her friend off before she could get marked absent. Pursing her rustic pink lips, Elsa's smile began to fade as her thoughts began to wander back to the events that happened earlier that day. And the more she thought about it, the further her mind began to take her away from the small classroom she was in.

.

Until the bell had rung, indicating first period was over, Elsa had barely come back down to earth from her thoughts. It was only until Rapunzel came over and waved her hand crazily in front of her dazed face when she fully came to the presence.

The school day had dragged out long and slow, and it felt like forever until it was lunchtime. Elsa was kind of surprised when she caught her own reflection in a small round mirror, which was stuck inside of someone's open locker, to see that she hadn't aged and formed wrinkles.

As Elsa walked down the flooding halls that were filling up with more and more people, she soon found herself no longer walking in the middle of the hallway, but to the far right of it. Gosh how she really didn't like how crowded these hallways could get… It was a good thing she wasn't claustrophobic, or else she really would've been having some sort of mental breakdown.

She sighed as some random person behind her seemed to have shoved her a little. She wasn't sure whether or not it was on purpose, but when she turned around to see who it was, she didn't even have to think about it to know that the person who did this didn't even care and didn't even notice what they had just done to her. It's not like they cared much anyway. It was merely one of the dumb jocks—and to be specific, it was Hans Westerguard. And to get really specific, he was the high school's best batter on the baseball team—meaning, he was some stuck up jerk, and he was someone that somehow made all of the girls swoon like he was some superhero flying around unmasked or something—for crying out loud, he had Anna and Rapunzel caught in his web of tangled lies and useless charms! He used to do football, but…ever since his freshman year he seemed to switch with his likes and favor hitting the ball instead of throwing it.

And really it wasn't just Hans that was stuck up. It was mostly any other boy that participated in some big role on a sports team, that had some sort of fame that trailed behind him like a long red cape, that was a stuck up, complete, total jerk. But did anyone seem to see this? Nope. Not really. It seemed like Elsa was the only one. And it kind of bugged her that she was the only one seeing this. There were so many girls wasting their sweet, sweet time fainting over a simple wink of the eye from one of these jocks. One smile and one girl would just drop dead. One touch and another girl would have a heart attack! And of course this is all exaggerated…sort of. But overall, it was absolutely ridiculous how girls would treat and react to these guys.

Even other random guys that ranked so much lower than these jocks would treat these jocks like they were royalty of some sort. Sure, they were kings of their own sports, but that didn't mean they were worthy _rulers_. It always frustrated her whenever she'd see a boy who had a decent track of mind come crawling back to one of these jocks with their history report all typed up and ready to get rewarded an "A" that they didn't even deserve, let alone _earn. _

Elsa rolled her eyes as she began to turn around to walk away. She could barely stand how inconsiderate and rude these jocks were—especially _Hans_—why was she standing so close? Heaving out a sigh, she readjusted the backpack straps on her shoulders and began walking away, just like she should've done a long time ago.

"Hey Hans!" some guy suddenly exclaimed from a distance.

This caused Elsa to halt in her steps as she noticed people up ahead getting shoved out of the way by someone. "Oh, boy," she sighed. She didn't even have to see this guy's face to know who _he _was. She recognized this guy's voice belonged to none other than Eugene Fitzherbert (this guy was quite a talker)—but mostly everyone knew him by his nickname, Flynn Rider. Flynn was pretty much Han's best man. Now what made Mr. Flynn Rider so famous, other than the fact that he and Hans went way back, was because he was the best player on the baseball team that knew how to successfully make a steal from first to second base and second to third base, and he was also excellent at catching the other team whenever they would try to make steals, which was why they made him pitcher; he did have some good throws, but the main role of the pitcher wasn't exactly his strongest suit, in her own opinion. She's seen better…

"Hans!" Flynn called out once more.

Elsa could only frown in distaste.

"Flynn! Hey, what's going on?" Hans responded back.

Finally Flynn emerged out of the crowd with a big explosion of people getting shoved to the side. "Hans, you will never believe it, but I just came up with the most _brilliant _idea ever! It's genius! Ha, even I'm beginning to think I'm a genius with how ingenious this fantastic, most wonderful plan is!" He winked at some girls who all let out a sigh and began to fan themselves. Elsa couldn't help but look at this in horror—she thought stuff like that only happened in movies as an _exaggeration_.

This seemed to do more than just catch Han's attention, for some strange reason; and it wasn't the girls that caught his attention, for once, it was the actual words that spilled out of Flynn's mouth. "Oh? And what might that be?" He had this sick grin plastered on his face.

"Okay, it's—" Flynn opened his mouth, only to realize how many eyes were spotlighted on him. He heaved out a sigh and folded his arms as he turned to face the crowd, giving them all a look. "Alright, people, there's nothing to see here. I just got too excited. Now go back to whatever it was that you guys were doing, and have a great day!" he saluted off with an overdone grin, and just like that, people slowly, yet eventually all went back to their own business.

Elsa watched from off to the side as Flynn slowly turned back around to Hans with this weird smirk; Hans seemed to reflect the smirk on his own face. Seeing this only made her sick. What was she doing anyways? It was lunchtime, and Anna and Rapunzel were most likely searching for her. They were her first priorities—_not_ Hans and Flynn.

She fully turned her back away, ready to head on her way—Anna and Rapunzel on her mind—when Hans and Flynn suddenly walked past her, Flynn having his arm wrapped around Hans' shoulders as he began to tell him something. She couldn't lie, she was a little curious as to what they were talking about…but it wasn't like her to eavesdrop—especially when it came to _those_ two.

Eventually as the hallways began to noticeably start to thin out, Elsa glanced at the clock on the wall and her eyes widened. She really needed to find her sister and Rapunzel. It wasn't like her to be _this _late…

Sighing, she began heading on her way once more, only to find that Hans and Flynn had stopped walking a little ways up ahead. Her pacing slowed down a little, but she immediately picked up her pace, shaking her head to try and shake the nonsense tangling inside of her head out. She was going to walk by these two jerks like a perfectly, normal, inconspicuous girl. There was nothing to hear, and nothing to see. All she needed to do was just walk on by. There. That shouldn't be that hard. She nodded her head and tried to keep to herself as much as possible.

When she finally neared to the two boys and was now finally walking past them, the plugs that clogged her ears had somehow fallen out a little too early and everything began to spill into her ears.

"…so, it looks like this Saturday, those DreamWorks Freaks will be having their Winter Ball, and it seems like they'll be having some very, very special guests arriving…" Han's was smirking.

"Why, yes, so it seems…it's too bad that we won't be able to meet these special guests, considering our plans are already booked for that night." Flynn clicked his tongue in a mocking shame.

After hearing this, Elsa quickened her pace, feeling like she had just crossed enemy lines; she now really regretted she ever allowed herself to listen to them talking nonsense. And as she fully escaped out of hearing distance, something didn't feel right as she left Flynn and Hans to bask in each other's company. Something was wrong. What exactly was it, though? She felt like their words had somehow poisoned her mind or something…and she didn't even know what they were _talking _about. Why was she even caring about them anyway? She needed to stop this. Ignore it. It was nothing. It was absolutely nothing…right?

Elsa shook her head, slowing down a little in her walk. Pursing her lips, she then snapped her head up. "Anna and Rapunzel," she huskily exclaimed. They probably were wondering where she was. She needed to find them.

* * *

**Yes! A chapter is up! ;D My fist is totally up in the air for success! Ha - not really, but I like to imagine it like that in times of success. ;P **

**So now what do you think? If you have any questions, feel free to let them blow because I might just be able to answer them; if the answer is something that will eventually get answered in this story, then I won't answer because...yeah...I don't want to spoil anything! Haha, anyway...**

**Thanks guys so, so much for reading! And stay tuned! :D**


	4. Try until You Fall, Fall until You Cry

**Hey guys! So, I have a few questions, and I'm asking now so you have time to think it over while you read and will hopefully be willing to answer them for me when you're done with this chapter. Anyways, here they are:**

**1) So, I thought I knew what I wanted, but now I'm not so sure...do you think I should keep the 3rd perspective on just Elsa? Or would you like it if I opened the 3rd perspective and did some chapters where it's Jack's 3rd perspective?**

**2) And also, would you like to see characters from other movies like _Brave _and _How to Train Your Dragon _appear on here every now and then? Because I knew quite a few of these stories in this archive include characters from those movies as well... But I just want to know your guys' opinions.  
**

**Anyways, that's it for now... Carry on.**

* * *

As Elsa neared the school cafeteria, she slowed her pace and came to a full stop. Biting her thumb nail, she took a few small steps forward so she had a better view through the open doors to the lunchroom. Off in the far corner, she spotted Anna and Rapunzel. The table they sat at appeared full in her eyes—when really there was one more space—which she could only assume it was meant for her—but she didn't want to believe there was an actual reserved spot for her, because then that meant she was expected to show up. It meant there was reason for her to feel just the slightest bit guilty for running off and avoiding having to share her company with all of those people.

It wasn't that she didn't like them…and it wasn't that she didn't want to spend time with the girls…it was just…she didn't want to have to talk to them at the moment. In fact, talking to them kind of scared her. Who knows what topics they'd bring up. And it wasn't the fact that they probably would bring up who they had the biggest crush on and who _she_ should have a crush on; they always said that there was no way she couldn't not have someone she had at least taken a liking to…but in all honesty, there really was no one at their school that had even caught her attention in that kind of way. The only guys that did just so happen to get her to spend one second to even glance at them were the ones that were practically shouting out to the whole world they needed all eyes on them.

Taking a few steps backwards, she abruptly turned around, heading down the hallway and away from the people she knew. It was okay—they didn't need her to be around to have a good time. In fact, she was almost positive that with her gone, the sun _may_ actually want to come out a little more. Anna and Rapunzel would be so much happier without her around to rain on their parade.

For the most part, she knew she wasn't always the most exciting person to be around. Who would want to be around someone like _her?_ Her social status was way off the radar, no one really even knew her name, let alone even know who she was!—she has been asked by some if she was new—other people, though, did know who Rapunzel was. And Anna? Well, she was just a sophomore. She was just barely making her name known to the world. Elsa was quite positive, as well, that Anna would probably have a better life at school if she didn't choose to tag along with her. If there was anything Elsa knew what she was even doing, it was the fact that she was just a ball and chain, dragging down the only people that even knew her name down to the bottom of the ocean. And once you've drowned, the chances that there'd be someone who'd want to even come diving in after you was less likely. She knew that. She knew it all too well…

Elsa heaved out a sigh while she stared down at her shoes as they disappeared beneath her after each step she took, until suddenly she felt something buzzing against her back. She began chewing on her bottom lip as she hesitantly slipped her backpack off and held it out in front of her while she slowed down with her walking. Slowly unzipping her backpack, almost as if she was afraid a monster would pop out, she then slipped her hand down into the open mouth of her bag, and as her backpack began eating up her arm, she froze for only a split second before slowly pulling her arm out and free into the open. When she pulled her hand out, she slowly flipped it over to reveal that she was now holding her cell phone that seemed to be having a heart attack in her hand. Her phone was buzzing and jiggling as if it were trying to break free out of her grip.

Peering down at the caller ID, she let out a stressed sigh. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she pressed the button with the red telephone on it. And as soon as she killed the call, her phone seemed to lose all of its life. It had its heart attack. She pursed her lips and hovered her phone over the small black hole to her backpack. When her cell phone abruptly began to come back from the dead like a nightmare, her eyes widened and she quickly released her grip on her buzzing phone allowing it to fall into the black hole like she had just dropped it down to its grave. She didn't waste any time to seal the black hole back up with one swift movement of pulling the zipper over it. Now she felt like she had just buried her cell phone alive.

As she hugged her backpack trying to stop it from shaking, hoping to settle down the rumbling from deep inside of it, she quickly picked up her pace, afraid that the caller might just come looking for her.

Elsa held her breath as she began to turn a corner, only to suddenly halt in her steps. Up ahead of her was the school's entire baseball team, all huddled next to each other forming a circle, looking much like how they appeared before they normally went out to play some ball. What in the world were they doing?! As her facial expression melted into confusion, she slowly began walking backwards to head back around the corner. She didn't really want to have to walk past them…especially when she was alone. And it's not like they'd pick on her…but it was always a fear of hers.

As she stepped away from the corner and out into the open, she glanced down the direction she had just come from, beginning to walk in that direction, only to freeze and quickly rush around the corner once more. Now that she thought about it, walking past the baseball team while they were in their game-plan formation wasn't all that bad. Even if she was alone. It definitely was a much better idea than having to walk past the person who she practically hung up on.

It turned out, as luck would have it, before she had made the quick decision to suck it up and walk past the baseball team, who practically were all jerks, she had spotted the caller, also known as her sister, walking out of the cafeteria, most likely out in search for her. She did walk away from the lunchroom for a reason…and it was to avoid having to make an type of social interaction.

Elsa could handle small talk perfectly fine—small talks like the little, mini conversations she had earlier with Anna this morning. Those small talks consisted of simple words like "hey," and, "we're going to be late for school!" These were words that didn't mean much; they didn't take conversations too far in too deep. They didn't reveal anything that was meant to stay hidden…that was meant to stay in a world of isolation—which was a world where only she was allowed to live in—where she was free to be whatever she wanted to be without worrying about what others thought of her. This world was her safe haven. It was where she could never get hurt…and no one could ever get hurt by her.

As Elsa rushed on by the group of boys, she quickly glanced behind her in an urgent manner before heading into the girl's restroom. Who knows how far behind Anna was… Immediately she made her way to the furthest bathroom stall, but in the process, she couldn't help but take a quick glance at the girl whom she saw walking across the mirrors, following her. She finally had to stop herself to take a better look when she was down by the last mirror. All she saw was a girl who was running away from her little sister just to avoid conversation…but that wasn't all. She also saw a girl who was a complete failure, a girl that was nothing, a girl that had no talents, a girl that would never get down that stupid butterfly jump, and a girl that should probably just stop trying so hard…

When she made eye contact with the breaking blue eyes that belonged to the girl in the mirror, her breathing hitched in her throat. _Look at that girl _a voice echoed in her mind. _What a loser…it's no wonder that she's running away from everything she's afraid of. Aww, but it's so sad, isn't it? Mommy and Daddy are no longer around to protect her…to help her hide. Who's going to protect their poor little princess now?_

Elsa slowly began to walk backwards, shaking her head while the small voice in her head laughed. She could only hug her backpack, that she still held in her hands, tighter against her chest. Eventually when the laughter died down, she suddenly felt the door to the stall behind her move, but she still kept moving backwards.

_You know you'll never make it._

And that's when she could no longer stand it. She tore her gaze away from the girl in the mirror and locked herself into the stall she was now standing in. She could hear her heartbeat pounding in her ears, droning out the silence that surrounded her.

As she took in a deep breath, she leaned against the white tiled wall, letting go of her breath as she slowly allowed herself to slide down to the ground. She knew that the bathroom floor probably wasn't the best surface to sit on, but at the moment she didn't care how gross or nasty it was. All she wanted to do was sit in her silence and regain her thoughts. She hugged her backpack even tighter while she scooted her legs up closer to her chest. She eventually began to bite her lower lip as she stared straight ahead of her at the blurred sight of the beige bathroom stall wall.

For the rest of lunch, she stayed locked up inside of the bathroom.

.

The car ride home from school was nothing far from awkward. Elsa barely had a response to Anna whenever she'd try to start up a conversation.

"So, we missed you at lunch today…" Anna began.

Elsa gripped her hands on the steering wheel, slowly nodding her head, avoiding any eye contact possible. "Oh…?"

Anna glanced to Elsa expectedly. "So…?" she raised her eyebrows. "Where were you?" she pressed, leaning forward a little in attempt at making eye contact. But as her glittering aquamarine eyes searched Elsa's face, her face fell and she slowly leaned to the back of her seat. "Elsa," she breathed out, "is something wrong? Are you mad at me?"

Elsa began to speak, but her voice hitched in her throat. Closing her gaped mouth, she made another attempt at speaking. "I-I…" She squeezed her eyes shut but quickly reopened them, remembering she had the road to keep an eye on. "N-no, I'm not mad..." She barely spoke out.

"Then why aren't you talking to me?"

"What?—yes I am!" she proclaimed, grinding her teeth. How was she supposed to answer her sister without lying?

"Well, yeah, _now _you are…"

She let out a silent, stressed sigh through her teeth. "Look," she struggled to say. "I…today—today was just a really…really…bad day, okay?" She sucked in a deep breath, releasing it slowly.

"Oh…" Anna looked down to her hands.

"Yeah, I think…" She couldn't believe she was saying these words again. Soon these following words she was about to say would eventually become a habit. She just knew it. Oh, but wait…they already did become a habit, now didn't they… "I think I just need to spend some time alone, if that's okay…"

Elsa pursed her lips, not daring to glance to her right where her sister sat next door. She didn't need to even have to look to know that her sister was staring at her. But as soon as the tension she felt on her disappear, she took the dare her mind had been arguing not to take, and she quickly glanced over to Anna, who was now staring out the passenger window. When she averted her gaze swiftly back to the road, something in her felt so compressed…but she kept her poise and kept her focus on the road.

When Elsa drove the Volkswagen Beetle onto the driveway and had put the car into park, Anna glanced at her for some time. It took Elsa everything she had to hold back every urge she had to look back at her sister, but she just couldn't allow herself to. Instead of looking at Anna, she turned her body around and used her backpack, which she had put in the backseat, as an excuse and distraction so it looked like she had something to do. As she grabbed her backpack, she unzipped it and began rummaging aimlessly through her things. She heard Anna sigh and eventually get out of the car.

As soon as she heard the car door shut, her hands froze and she hesitantly peered over her shoulder, and watched as Anna walked up the porch and disappeared behind the front door. Sighing, she zipped her backpack back up and tossed it back onto the backseats and turned herself forward. Placing her hands on the car keys that were still in the engine, she slowly turned the car off before she glanced up at the rearview mirror. When she met her own reflection, her cyan blue eyes sent an electric shock down her spine and she quickly ushered herself out of the car, memories of her incident in the bathroom coming back.

When she slammed the car door shut, she quickly grabbed her backpack from the backseat and headed across the icy driveway and up the front porch steps to the door. As she stepped inside of her home, the warmth settling within her, bringing a disturbing discomfort to her arms as her blood rushed up to her face a little too fast, she began to feel a little lightheaded and sick. Lately the warmth that used to always wraps its arms around her, bringing comfort to her heart, no longer felt safe. Now whenever the warmth came around to wrap its arms around her, she always felt like it had its arms wrapped around her neck. Every time she entered her school, she felt at unease; but for some odd reason, the school's only heaters that worked were by the main front doors. None of them worked in the classrooms or in the hallways, so overall, she was fine at school, actually. It was also public places and whatever brought warmth to her skin in general, that made her feel uncomfortable.

She leaned against the front door behind her and tossed her backpack off to the side. _This was all so wrong… _Her own home shouldn't be a place where she didn't feel safe and uncomfortable. In fact, no one should ever feel this way whenever they entered their own home…

Elsa sighed as she dropped her gaze. Looking to her right, she spotted her blue duffle bag off in the corner. And without taking a second to even think about it, she grabbed her duffle bag and headed right out the door.

.

Looking up to the clouded sky, Elsa took in a deep breath and closed her eyes as she loosened her muscles. Exhaling out a small puff of air, she opened her eyes and looked straight ahead of her at the frozen lake. As she clutched onto her white skating shoes, she nodded her head and began to slip on her shoes before heading out onto the ice.

She knew that it was dangerous to skate on frozen lakes, but this one was different. She trusted this one. This one was the one that she used to always skate on in her younger days. This one was safe. And she knew it was safe because she's skated too many times on this lake in the winter whenever it was frozen, and it never once cracked or felt unsteady. It always felt so strong…and it _was_ strong. The frozen ice on top of the lake was so thick and stable, that it was always one of the last things to melt when it was time to say goodbye to the cold. When it was time to say goodbye to winter...

By the time she had her skates on and was out on the ice, everything she felt back at her home—the warmth, the nauseous feeling—got chased away and she felt like a big weight had been lifted off her chest. As she breathed in the cool, fresh air, she felt like she could breathe again. The chilled air was just the medicine she needed to cure her slight sickness. It was also where she felt safe and at…home.

She knew that for most people, the place they always felt safe and sound was someplace warm and wrapped with love. But for her, it was never that. And she now knew that. She knew it was never her own home where she felt safe. It was always when she was out in open chilled air, when she was alone, skating on ice. That's where she felt the safest. That's where she felt protected, oddly enough, even though the cold could do nothing to keep her safe from a bullet or a crashing plane.

While people had the warmth to hold them and comfort them, she had the cold. And she was perfectly fine with that.

As Elsa skated out on the ice, dressed in her shimmering blue skate dress, she stopped herself in the center and closed her eyes as she began to play the music to her solo in her head. And from there, she began practicing.

.

By the time she was on her seventeenth try, practicing the butterfly jump she so desperately wanted—_needed_—to get down, and was now skating forward to make an attempt at doing the butterfly jump for what felt more like the millionth time, she was about ready to break down and burst out into tears. Her legs were becoming numb, her cheeks were burning, and she was getting tired… She was exhausting herself to the point to where she could easily pass out. But no…she refused to stop. She _had _to get that butterfly jump down _today_. She just had to… There were absolutely no exceptions: she wasn't leaving until she got that darn jump down.

Taking in a deep breath, she thrust her body to go parallel to the ice, and when her skates made contact to the frozen ground, her legs gave out on her. They collapsed on her. They were just too tired to do anything more. She couldn't feel them, and they no longer could support her weight. And just like that, her skates slid out from beneath her and she came crashing down. And it was hard. But she felt no pain, for her whole entire body was numb at the moment, as it turned out.

Elsa gasped loudly with a small yelp when she knew she had fallen and hit the ground. Her whole body began to shake and tremble as she tried to pick herself up, but her hands slipped and she was back on the cold, hard ground within a split-second. As she bit her bottom lip while her body began to regain consciousness of its feeling, the burning sensation against her bare legs and right side that had made contact with the ground began to settle in, setting her whole entire body on fire. She couldn't contain herself any longer and began letting her cries out in soft gasps, which too caused pain for her for it amplified the panging sensation she felt on her right side and hip that had the worst pain.

Whoever said crying helped eased the pain never had fallen on ice like she had just done. In fact, for her case, crying just made everything hurt even _more_ and it made things _worse_ for her. She tried to stop crying, but she couldn't hold it all in. She couldn't hold her tears in because she never learned how to…but she never needed to because there was always someone there to catch her when she fell. But that was the past…who was going to help her up now and hold her steady?

For a while, she just laid there on the frozen ice and cried. She cried and cried and cried, and it didn't make her feel any better. The more she cried, the more she felt like she couldn't breathe. Who knew that crying could suffocate you? Instead of it helping her release her fears and sadness, it just choked her up and made her pains beat against her like a beating drum.

When she had finally settled herself down, and her cheeks were stained in frozen tears that bit at her burning cheeks, she soon began to relax a little, and all she could do was curl herself up and keep her body close to her. While she stared at what she could see of her skates, she took notice of how her pain had now settled down; she could only assume that this pain would come haunting back when she tried to make any moving motions. But she didn't care.

Closing her eyes, she allowed her body to rest on the frozen ground for a little while more. And she took her empty time to think about what had just happened. And the more she thought about it, the closer she hugged her arms to her chest and brought her legs up closer, and her eyes began to heat up and instantly something warm began trickling down her cheeks, soon followed after another, and another, and another…

Why did she have to cry so much?

She had no idea how long she had been crying for, but when she opened her now dried eyes, she saw small, white puffs falling to the ground, one after another. Slowly she unclenched her right hand and reached out a little until one of the white puffs had gently, with much grace landed, in the palm of her hand. When she saw one float down in her hand, she closed her hand and held tightly onto the ice crystal like she was holding someone's hand.

Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath and reopened her eyes with determination. It was time for her to get up. No more crying for the day. She couldn't spare any more of her tears at the moment. She needed to get up. And with that thought permanently printed in ink in her mind, her legs twitched a little as she slowly began to move her arm and place her hand underneath her to push herself up. As she put weight onto her hands, they began to sting a little, but she didn't care. She was a big girl. She could do this. Her world was calling her name back to the throne. It was time she reigned once more.

As Elsa made an even bigger effort to push herself up, ignoring the aching pain from her side and hip, she began to take in deeper breaths to help her breathe through the pain. Ever so slowly, as she began to arise, she couldn't help but feel somewhat refreshed. Biting her bottom lip as she placed the blades of her skates against the ice, she gradually straightened her composure and regained her poise. While the snow continued to fall, a small smile graced her lips and she took a moment to breath it all in. As she breathed it out, she began skating back to where her footprints were marked in the one foot tall snow that covered the grounds.

Her legs felt weird and breakable, and she wasn't sure whether or not she'd actually make it off of the ice, but she eventually did. And the moment she did, she switched her skates out for her ankle boots and began heading back to where she had parked her car. Looking up at the sky, taking note that the snow on the ground now looked a little blue, she could only sigh, and contort her face at the pain she felt in her right body half as she lifted her right leg across the stiff snow to the deep footprint up ahead of her from her walking to the frozen lake. What made this more painful and difficult, though, was the fact that she was kind of going uphill.

When her right foot landed in the imprinted footprint, her frozen, stiff hair swinging past her shoulder and hitting against her collar bone, she couldn't help but groan at the soaring pain in her side. "Ugh," she grunted under her breath, tightening her jaw muscles. She's had worse before, though, so this wasn't _too _bad.

By the time Elsa had finally made it to her lonely parked car, she took a moment to take a breather. As she took deep breaths, prepping herself as if she were just about to do something crazy such as jumping off a cliff, she held her breath and bent down to her boots and untied her car keys linked to the laces. Slowly, after she had retrieved her car keys, she placed her hand against the car for support, for her aching body was hurting just a little too much. Now she knew what it felt like to be extremely old to the point you could no longer change your own clothes, let along barely even walk.

When she finally got around to unlocking her car and stiffly opened the door, she slowly made an attempt at getting inside, but paused when the pain held her in her place, almost paralyzing her. Pursing her deep, rustic pink lips, she counted down from five to zero in her head. And the moment she hit zero, she swiftly heaved herself into the driver's seat and cringed at the sudden pain that echoed throughout her body like a sound wave. But the pain quickly settled to her satisfaction.

She peeped open her eyes that she had suddenly squeezed shut in anticipation right before she threw herself into the car. Sighing, she fully opened her eyes and closed the car door, placing her hands on the steering wheel. As she tapped her fingers against the chilled wheel, she leaned to the back of her seat and relaxed her body as a cool rush fluttered throughout her body.

She wasn't ready to head home quite just yet. And her reason wasn't because of who might be waiting at the door for her to return. She just needed to think first.

Tomorrow for sure she knew without a doubt she'd be stiff and sore all over. She knew very well how she'd feel like her body parts were just about to go flying off if she tried to do any movements that consisted of her having to lift her arms or legs in any sort of way. She just knew that's how she'd feel. After all, this wasn't the first time she's fallen before, so how could she not remember? She remembered _everything _that ever caused her pain…

Elsa closed her eyes and gripped tightly onto the steering wheel. Tomorrow morning she was going to still go to ice skating practice. She was going to pretend like nothing ever happened to her, and that she felt nothing—no pain, no aches—absolutely nothing. She was going to be strong. She was going to conceal, and not feel.

Nodding her head, she slipped her car keys into the ignition and started the car. Buckling her seatbelt, she grabbed her icy, wet braid and pulled it up front over her shoulder. Glancing at the digital white numbers, she could only blink. It was already 6:32 P.M. Had she really been out that long? She slowly lifted her gaze and stared through her windshield at the falling snow. Blinking some more, she eventually put her car into drive, stepped on the gas, and headed on her way back to her house with nothing but the radio quietly playing.

* * *

**Yay! Got a chapter done! Halla to yo mamma! Uh! Burn - no just kidding. That's not even a "burn" situation...**

**So to those who reviewed:**

**ooPoPcAnDy: I know, right? I really want Elsa to already meet Jack - I have it all planned out and everything! ;D I just hope it doesn't take too many chapters until they meet because I'm getting way impatient and am ready to rush. But...I won't. At least I'll try to not. Anyway, thanks for reading and not to mention reviewing. :) **

**unicorns: Thank you SO much for telling me about Han's real last name! I already went back and changed it. I didn't know what else to put other than the whole S. Isle-thing I put, which I honestly really didn't like in the first place - I mean I feel like it sounds kind of like a tongue twister with the whole "S" thing going on - it's practically snake talk, all ssssss, and stuff... ;P And yes, I do apologize for the last chapter being a little too sisterly-loved and all. I didn't have plans for them to be close in the first place, and as I was writing the chapter it did feel a little like they were too close for what I wanted...but clearly I didn't do anything about it. So I hope this chapter does some justice. ;D And thank you so much for reading and reviewing, and for what you've said!**

**Okay, so I won't do the whole personal-thank-you thing every chapter, but every now and then, when I feel like I should answer questions or add a comment, or really just show my gratitude, I will. :D**

**Anyhow, to the rest of you lovely readers: Thanks so much for reading!**

**Oh, and please don't forget to answer my questions, if you're willing to do so! Thanks! **


	5. Happiness Never Meant Perfection

**Thanks so much to those who reviewed! And thanks to all who are reading!**

* * *

"Mr. Overland!"

Jack blinked his eyes open, lifting his forehead off of his hand. "Uh, yeah," he shook his head as if to shake the drowsiness away, "uh—what?" He peered up at the stern lady that stood front of the classroom who was impatiently tapping the black whiteboard marker against the palm of her hand.

"If you want to attend school, yet sleep at the same time, then I suggest you leave DreamWorks High and go to some pre-school! But, if this is not the case, and you want to actually _gain_ an education, then I suggest you save the sleeping for the nighttime and start paying _attention_, Jack!" she huffed, pulling down at her black business suit.

Some snickers could be heard throughout the room, and Jack turned his head a little, smirking in response to them. Sighing casually, he rolled his ice blue eyes to the physics teacher. "I completely understand, Mrs. Hardwelding."

"Oh do you, Jack?" She raised her eyebrows as she walked closer in his direction, her square face somehow making her seem scarier than she really was. If there was anything very few people knew it was that Mrs. Hardwelding was all bark and no bite. She could barely keep her cool if there was a harmless bug nearby (only a few students have witnessed in the past her having the world's biggest melt down when a little fly landed a few inches away from her, Jack being one of them). In reality, she was afraid of practically every single creature in the world, and she never followed through with her empty threats. But because of her firm, scarce appearance of professionalism, it was always fear at first sight for the students whoever had to cross paths with her; she even brought fear to parents and some of the teachers. If only they knew her true colors.

Jack's smirk deepened as he leaned against the back of his navy blue seat. "Oh, trust me, Hardwelding. I know very well how important my education is—but, you have to know, I'm only here because I need to look good for colleges and baseball teams. Plus I actually would like to graduate with my class." Leaning forward, he then added, "We all have our dreams, you know, even dreams that consist of being able to smash a small, _harmless_ baby fly. You know what I mean?" His playful blue eyes taunted her.

A few chuckles could be heard by only those who understood where he was getting at, whereas those who didn't know Mrs. Hardwelding's secret held their breaths and watched as their school's infamous baseball pitcher, formally known as Jack Frost throughout all of the school and not to mention the world's biggest heartthrob, according to practically every single girl that had the luck of even being in his presence, stood up to this fierce teacher.

After a few seconds of silence, Mrs. Hardwelding pursed her red stained lips, slowly nodding her head. "Oh, for the love—!" she fumed. Staring at Jack with fiery brown eyes, she finally gave in. "Fine. I'll let you off the hook—but _just this once,_" she firmly stated. "That is, of course, if there's anyone in the room that would like to take Mr. Overland's punishment, then please…"She gave the rest of the room a good long stare. Grinning, she clutched onto the blackboard marker with both hands, appearing pleased. "Excellent—now, we'll just go back to reading page 274 in your textbooks that you all should've brought to class today."

Silent gasps and groans could be heard throughout the room, but no one spoke or complained out loud. The majority of them were all too scared to even speak up. For those who weren't afraid, they were simply too busy applauding silently at Jack's performance. Some blonde guy, whom was well built, tossed a crumpled up piece of paper at Jack's head while Mrs. Hardwelding had her back turned.

Jack merely rolled his eyes and turned around to retrieve the crumpled piece of lined paper not too far from him on the floor. When he picked the crumpled paper up and straightened it out on his desk, only one word was written on it in black ink. The word was: _Nice. _Shaking his head, he looked behind him at the blonde guy who had thrown it, known as Kristoff, and shook his head, smiling knowingly. Chuckling silently, he scribbled down _Thanks, now it's your turn _and tossed it back to Kristoff who put his hands up out of reflex to shield himself from the flying paper-ball thrown at him.

Kristoff had been friends with Jack ever since he began junior high. And the thing that was bizarre about Kristoff was that he originally was supposed to attend their biggest rivalry school, Disney High. But clearly, instead he chose to go to the school he was at now; everyone he became fairly good friends with were all in the boundaries to go to DreamWorks High, so he did the most reasonable thing to not get separated from them. He chose to go to their same high school.

Jack snickered at Kristoff's reaction, giving him a look that read _Are you serious? It's just a piece of paper. _But the blonde ignored this and retrieved the crumpled up piece of paper that landed on his desk. After he had read the note, he smirked at Jack as if to say, _Challenge accepted, _and gave him thumbs up. But Kristoff's face fell as soon as he looked up at the front of the room and he quickly pulled out his textbook.

Rolling his eyes, Jack peered up to the front of the classroom seeing just what he had suspected: Mrs. Hardwelding was glaring at him. But he brushed her harsh look off and raised his eyebrows at her in response. When she turned her gaze away in defeat, he smirked.

At this point in his life, it was completely, officially safe to say that he practically owned the school. He ruled it, along with his other friends. It was funny because his past life would have people believing he was a completely different person than the boy he was back in elementary school. In truth, he originally never was born famous; he never stood out. But that was the past, and he preferred to keep it behind him, only as the past. The only thing that was important to him was now, and everything that was happening in the present. He now had it all, and the way things worked out for him was that you only continue to grow—and you never stop growing.

So in other words, there was no way he was ever going back to the boy he was back in elementary school. He's come way too far for that to ever happen.

Sighing, he grabbed his textbook and opened to the designated page. It didn't take too long, however, for him to get distracted and peer out the window on his left instead. It was now snowing small specks of white, and everything was covered in a blinding white. You could barely tell where the sidewalk started and ended, but he didn't need any flashing lights or arrows to show him where the baseball field was. Despite the fact that it felt like baseball season was so far away, it was really actually coming up so soon. He clenched his teeth. His fingers were so anxious to pick up a ball…

Well, it wouldn't be too long until then, though.

.

As the day went on by, stretching and dragging on like a rubber band that could never break, it finally was now lunchtime for the students at DreamWorks High. The vast whispers and giggles that girls in the hallways were gossiping about was mainly about their excitement about the upcoming dance, the Winter Ball, and also how excited they were to show off to the whole school how great they looked in their fancy gowns and dresses that looked like they belonged to royalty; they mostly were pumped up about being able to impress and show off to their dates, though. For the boys, well, they weren't _too_ hyped up about the dance because after all, it was just a dance—but despite their laidback expressions, they were still just as excited—they just preferred to keep it to themselves.

For most people, this dance felt just like waiting for Christmas day to finally arrive. It was already Tuesday, and there were four more days left until the Winter Ball. The atmosphere was definitely uplifting and bright, just like the winter snow outside. The students could barely even contain themselves.

"Hey, Jack!" an overly excited voice exclaimed, catching a few eyes from the hallway to stop and stare out of curiosity.

As Jack and his circle of friends looked in the direction of the voice, a noticeable girl from one end of the hallway began dashing forward towards them, pushing and shoving past the people, every now and then saying things like "Excuse me" and "Sorry! Coming through!" Grinning, Jack stepped forward from his group of friends and spread his arms out wide as a blur of blue and green came ramming into him, embracing him a tight hug.

"Oh—" he wheezed out, chuckling a little as his supply of oxygen got pumped out. He patted the girl who was squeezing him tight, barely getting out: "Um, Tooth? Toothiana? You can—you can—I can't breath—you can let go now—"

Tooth let go of Jack, holding him back by his shoulders. "Jack—I've told you a thousand times!—you don't have to call me by my full name!"

Smirking, he rolled his eyes. "How else was I supposed to get you to let go of me, huh?"

"I would've let go of you if you asked…"

Jack cocked an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Okay, maybe not—but eventually I would've _had_ to let go, you know," she smiled, her bright green eyes sparkling, her light pink eye shadow amplifying her eyes.

"So…what's up?" he asked as she composed her flowy turquoise blue top along with her teal cardigan.

"Wha?" she blinked in confusion, but then lit up. "_Oh!_ Yeah! So I heard you asked Courtney Malory to the Winter Ball! Why didn't you _tell _me?!" She punched him hard in the arm (at least she thought she did).

"Oh, I didn't know I was supposed to tell you," he crossed his arms. "Since when was it a rule that I had to tell you every girl I ask to school dances? Plus you would've figured out who I asked anyway since word gets out quite fast around here and normally passes through like a hurricane."

Tooth gave him a look, mouth gaping wide open in disbelief. "Are you serious? Jack! We've been friends since the first _grade! _I think I have a right to know these kinds of things _first! _I don't want to hear it from some girls gossiping about who you asked in the bathroom! I want to hear it come right out of your mouth when you are standing face to face with me." She pouted, her naturally rosy skin heating up a bit from her temper.

Chuckling, he shook his head, dropping his hands down to his sides. "Fine, well next time I'll tell you, okay?"

She looked up from playing with her gold chain necklace, smiling. But her smile began to fade a little. "Jack…" She hesitantly began. "Do you really, really, like, really—I'm being serious here—do you really like…" She trailed off.

"Do I really like…?" He raised an eyebrow.

Sighing, she pursed her lips and stopped fiddling with her gold necklace. "Okay, fine," she heaved out. "What I'm trying to ask is: do you really like Courtney?"

"Wait, what?" Jack stepped back a little.

"Oh, no, I knew it was a bad idea to ask you!—okay, um, just forget I ever mentioned her name and let's move on with life! Like…." She began to laugh nervously, twiddling her thumbs.

"Wait, freeze," he spoke up.

Tooth straightened her posture and blinked at him. "Okay, okay, I'm…freezing…"

Taking in a deep breath, he exhaled and stared at his friend for a moment. Why was she bringing up Courtney and asking if he really actually liked the girl? Sure, yeah, he liked her, but not in _that _kind of way, if that's what she was wondering; maybe one day, over time, he might like her in _that _kind of way…but for now, he wasn't really close to her or felt anything too strong for her. In fact, he hasn't been close to very many girls for quite a while now, and she should know that. The only girl he was close to was her, Tooth—but she didn't count because she and him were best friends—they were like family Tooth was like his older sister. And he knew that the only reason she'd ever question him on anything in general, was if he was making or had made a decision she wasn't too fond of or comfortable with.

"How well do you know Courtney?" he blurted out. "Like, um…is there something I need to know about her?" he asked, taking a step forward. Suddenly now, his small spark of excitement about the upcoming dance began to melt a little. He actually was quite excited for this dance—more than he usually is, too.

Tooth began biting her lower lip. "Ah, what?" she lightly laughed. "Um, well, Jack! Of course I _know _her fairly well—I mean, she's on the cheer team, as well—us cheerleaders are fairly close, you know—we're kind of like…um…"

"Sisters?" Hiccup spoke up from behind Jack.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, flailing her hands up. "_Yes! _Thank you! Hic…cup? Hiccup?"

The brown-haired boy nodded his head. "Ye-up. That's my name." He chuckled awkwardly. "And I'm probably the only one with that name…so, I don't see how you could forget, but hey, it's no biggie."

She smiled at him before averting her bright-eyed gaze back to Jack. "Us cheerleaders are practically like sisters," she spoke with much dignity.

"Oh, really?" Jack scoffed. "Well, then us _baseball_ players," he mocked, turning to gaze back at his group of friends, "are like brothers."

"Hey! I'm not on the baseball team," Kristoff stepped up, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Oh…right… You're not on the baseball team—you—you're on the football team…" Jack sighed, scratching the back of his head with his right hand. Of course there was one person that wasn't on the baseball team. "Okay, well, then," he clasped his hands, ready to rephrase his words, "me and the _guys_—" he indicated to himself and the other three guys behind him "—we're practically like brothers as well."

Tooth rolled her eyes playfully, still a small hint of concern in them. "Alright, Jack," she softly laughed. "I just want you to be happy. You're a good person, Jack. You really are. And I think you deserve the best. And that goes for the rest of you boys," she pointed to the small group. "Be careful who you choose, please? And be mindful to giving other girls you normally wouldn't even give a second thought about, too. Because you never know…you never know that 'the one' just might be a girl from—and don't hate me for saying this—but she just might even be a girl that doesn't even go to this school."

Jack looked up at her with a hint of surprise, but he managed a small, gentle half-smile.

"Okay, and I know how surprisingly prideful guys can be that go to this school about only dating girls that go here," she stated with a look. "You know the whole 'I'm only going to date true blood, DreamWork High school girls' thing."

Chuckling, shaking his head, Jack rested his hands on her shoulders. "Look, I get it: you want me to be open-minded."

"Yes, but not only that—I want you to be—"

"—happy, I know." He tightened his grip on her shoulders reassuringly. "Don't worry about me, okay?"

"And don't worry, Tooth, we'll keep a close eye on him." Kristoff came up and pounded his hand against Jack's back, causing him to jerk forward a little, his hands slipping off of Tooth's shoulders. Jack merely gave him a grim smile in return. "Right guys? We'll look out for him…warn him when he's with a witch…or a troll…" Kristoff joked with a hidden seriousness in his playful tone.

"Right," Hiccup stepped forward, followed by a nod from the other guy with them, Sanderson, most commonly called Sandy.

Tooth's expression lifted and she looked up at Jack. Tousling his white hair, she then placed her hand against his jawline for a moment before dropping it. "Promise me you'll tell me who she is when you think you've found the one?" she spoke with a bit of humor, yet solemnity as well.

"Don't worry," he soothed, rolling his eyes, "I promise. Happy?"

She nodded her head, her eyes suddenly growing as big as the moon. "Oh, my gosh! I completely spaced out! Sorry! I have a cheer meeting to go to!" She quickly hugged Jack one last time, and before she ran off, she turned to the other boys behind him. "Thanks Kristoff, Hiccup—I did remember your name, I just wasn't sure if I remembered it correctly—and Sandy. Now I'm holding you boys to your words, okay?" With that said, she waved to them all and rushed off, her dark brown hair, that was curled at the tips, bouncing, as she weaved her way through the loose crowd of people that remained in the hallways talking.

Jack sighed as he placed his hands in his jean pockets, his friends from behind coming up. "So, you asked Courtney Malory?" Hiccup asked, a hint of surprise mixed within his voice.

"Yeah, uh, didn't I tell you? You guys knew, right?" He turned around, folding his arms.

Hiccup opened his mouth, but Kristoff cut him off. "Uh, yes, we did," the blonde-haired boy glanced to Sandy who simply nodded his head, "I think you just forgot, Hiccup."

"Me? Forget? Are you saying that I—okay, yeah, I probably did forget. Sorry." Hiccup sighed, scrunching up the long sleeves to his forest green shirt.

"Guys, it uh, it doesn't really matter—it's fine. I asked Courtney Malory to the Winter Ball this Saturday, big deal." Jack shrugged as if it were nothing, although deep within, he was actually thrilled. And despite Tooth's strange oncoming approach about Courtney, he figured it to be nothing too important.

"Well, it kind of _is_ a big deal, when you think about it, though…" Hiccup spoke up. "I mean, this is our last year here. Wouldn't you want to ask someone you genuinely _want _to go to the dance with?"

"Well, of course…" Kristoff scoffed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Suddenly the school bell rang, indicating lunchtime was over, and the halls began filling up, swarming with people going to their last class period of the day. As Jack stared at the many people passing him by, he felt as if he were in some bubble. People were giving him space purposefully. It seemed as if no one dare bumped into him. But that thought immediately vanished when someone rammed their shoulder into his, popping his bubble; he didn't even have to think to know who it was.

Jack heaved out a sigh and turned around. "Pitch," he spoke under his breath, crossing his arms as he spotted a tall figure in the crowd walking away. He could already see the evil grin plastered across the guy's face, and this made him grimace.

"Was that Pitch?" Kristoff suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah…" Jack nodded his head, his facial expression stern.

"I don't get it—why doesn't he like us?" Hiccup crossed his arms.

Jack shook his head. "I don't know…" And he really didn't. He thought he knew at some point, once, but he assumed wrong as it turned out. "I don't know…"

"Hmm…well, if there's any reason as to why I would ever _not _be excited for baseball season to come up, it's that guy," Hiccup stated, pursing his lips.

"See gentlemen? And that is why I do football…" Kristoff looked off in a fantasizing way as he waved his hands in front of him creating a half-circle image in front of him.

Jack shook his head and sighed. "Guy's, let's just not worry about him. I mean, if we've put up with him this long, then I'd like to think that we can for sure put up with him for these next few months." And he had a point. They've put up with Pitch Black for longer than anyone should ever have to, and they accepted that fact a long time ago.

The fact that they were practically on the same team as Pitch was quite unbelievable, and if they had a choice, they would choose to be on each other's opposing teams, but they had no choice, now did they? They all had the same pride about their school and about winning, so they never dared stepping out of bounds to cause their own team to lose. They had so much in common, yet they were so different all at the same time. And even though they were teammates out on the field, that didn't mean they never stopped fighting against each other. Every game was a battle to prove to one another who was better, and you'd think Jack and his friends would have the upper-hand, since it was all of them against only one dark evil: Pitch Black.

But just because Jack had more people behind him didn't mean that taking Pitch down would be easy. Good people don't win easily against bad people. In fact, it's the many heroes, that seem to have a hard time battling against the one villain in practically every single situation. Jack and his friends were really good on the inside, even though they had quite and ego. And while they were strong, being the good guys, Pitch was stronger, being their one, main bad guy. For some odd reason it was always so easy for there to be so much power in something so bad. And that was why Pitch still stood, straight and tall. He was bad and had so much control and power. And what gave him so much power was the fact that he knew your fears and that he knew how to use them to gain control. He knew how to use your own fears against you.

There's a reason why the dark is able to take over the light. Why white paint can barely stand a chance against black paint. And it's because the darkness is so much stronger.

"C'mon, guys…let's just brush it off," Jack sighed. "We should head to our classes." His friends nodded their heads and they each broke off in their separate paths.

As Jack headed to his next class alone, he clenched his fists at the thought of Pitch. Oh how he really wanted to punch his lights out…but then he remembered that the guy already had his lights off. The guy practically lived in a world of darkness. Knocking Pitch's lights out would only make his already twisted mind grow darker. But that was all figurative. He really just wanted to actually punch the guy in the face. Jack sighed as he approached his classroom and stopped, standing in the doorway. He stared across the room at the ghostly pale guy, who had his jet black hair spiked up, and was all dressed in black, sitting at the very back of the room. A small crooked, twisted smile was plastered on this guy's face and Jack tightened his muscles, his gaze turning dark.

Well, here was his chance to punch Pitch.

* * *

**Haha, lovely ending, right? Such happy thoughts... Oh, and I got some of the other guardians in! Yay...! So it's official, as you can all tell: I will be doing open 3rd POV. **

**Oh, and I know I already asked some questions...but, another one just occurred to me, and I can't decide, again...ugh, I know. ;P Sorry...but here it is: **

**1) Do you guys want Hiccup to end up with Astrid? Or are the majority of you all going, "Oh, screw that canon couple crap - I like Merida so much better!" (Sorry, I could be doing this in the poll-thingy, but, I'm not sure how many of you would do it...would you prefer that to this?)**

**Anyway! Thanks so much for reading!**


	6. Staying Sane

**My apologies for the delay, school has just been...lovely... And sorry if you spot any mistakes, I got lazy and didn't want to check for mistakes.**

* * *

"So…did you punch him?" Kristoff excitedly asked as they walked out the school doors and down the steps.

Jack pursed his lips and shook his head. "No. But I should've, huh?" he half-joked. He put his hands in the pockets to his black leather jacket, for the cold had begun to bite away at his skin.

"Well, honestly, Jack, I think you made the right decision—I mean, if you did start a brawl with Pitch, you probably wouldn't be here walking with us. In fact, you'd probably be in the Principal's office. So…when you look on the bright side…" Hiccup smiled as he jumped off the last step like a kid. "You're not in captive and you're free!"

Jack merely gave him a half-smile, slowly stepping off of the last snow-covered step as well. He stopped walking, allowing himself to fall behind his friends. Taking in a deep breath, he slowly breathed it out through his lips. The only reason he didn't make a move on Pitch wasn't because he had wanted to make "the right decision." It was because of Tooth. It was because of what she had said earlier about him being a "good" guy. That was the only thing that held him back from making a move—it was because of _her. _He didn't want to have to disappoint her—especially not after she had just said something about him with so much confidence a few moments ahead of time...

_You're a good person, Jack. You really are, _her voice echoed in his head like a haunted memory. He shook his head as if to try and shake her words out of his head. How could she say those words without any hesitation? And what exactly made her believe that anyway?

Tooth has known him practically her whole life—meaning: she should know him well enough to know that he's _not _that great of a person. He's not what he would call himself a "good person"—not that he _was_ a badperson. He wasn't what people would call a villain or anything of the sort—at least not like Pitch, anyway. In a way, however, he was a bad guy—he just wasn't to the highest degree type of bad to the point people would notify and title him with an invisible nametag that would say something like _WARNING: Bad Guy. _But anyhow, back to his main point: if Tooth hadn't had said those words to him earlier with so much belief put into her words, he would've gladly taken that opportunity to collide his fist into Pitch's face. It was as simple as that.

It wouldn't have been his first brawl he's gotten into if he had punched Pitch, anyway…so there was no clean slate he felt the need to protect.

But then again, he probably wouldn't have allowed himself to hit Pitch all because of one other reason, which was: how exactly would that look to the school if he basically, randomly walked up to one of his teammates from the baseball team and punched him square on in the face like it was some casual secret handshake? It obviously wouldn't look too good. After all, considering the policies of loyalty and team-like qualities his school takes pride in—that he, as well, has enough pride to follow in—he wouldn't be able to break it unless absolutely necessary.

Sighing, he dropped his gaze down to the white glittering snow. He needed to stop winding his brain into knots—stop overall thinking about Pitch. That guy always had a way to creep into his head and stay there for a while, blending in like a dark shadow in the corner he barely ever would notice.

"Hey Jack!"

Jack blinked and peered up to where his two friends had stopped walking a little ways away, looking at him weirdly.

"Oh—!" he widened his ice blue eyes, jogging over to them.

"What were you doing? Daydreaming?" Kristoff asked with a bit of a smile plastered on his face. "Oh, wait, wait—were you daydreaming about a _girl?_"

This caught Jack off guard. Daydreaming about a girl? Him? Really? Did he really seem that content to his thoughts? Pitch wasn't exactly someone he'd—well, _anyone, _for this matter—would ever really want to daydream about on a daily basis and appear _happy_. In fact, anyone whomever had such thoughts of Pitch looking comfortable should probably go see a psychiatrist or a therapist. _He _needed to go see some sort of doctor that helped with mental disorders. With how much he's already allowed Pitch to contaminate his mind in a black burning tar, he now really needed to have a surgeon open up his head and replace his brain with a new one. The damage that's already charred his mind black won't be forgettable like a cut; it'll be memorable like a scar.

"A girl?" Hiccup chimed in. "You never told me you had your eyes set on any _girl…_" He crossed his arms, glancing between Kristoff and Jack, his gaze ending on Jack. "What, so you told Kristoff about this _girl, _yet you didn't care enough to tell me? I'm your friend too! You know, you guys really need to scoop me in on this stuff too! I'm not just some third-wheeler! We're in on this together, aren't we? Why can't you—"

Jack shook his head and abruptly stated: "Whoa, whoa—wait!"

Hiccup and Kristoff clamped their mouths shut, looking to Jack.

"Okay, for one," he turned to Hiccup, "I have _no idea _whatsoever as to what you're talking about—I tell you both everything, and I normally share whatever I have to say whenever you're both around—and second—" He turned and gave Kristoff a confused look. "I don't know what girl you're thinking I'm supposedly daydreaming about—where the heck did you get such an idea? You know there's not really a girl at the moment that I'm interested in, other than possibly my date for the Winter Ball—which by the way I wasn't thinking about!—so are we clear?"

Both Hiccup and Kristoff glanced to each other, nodding their heads. "Y-yeah, yeah," their voices blended in with each other. "Yup, we're crystal clear."

Jack lifted his eyebrows and carried on, casually walking backwards past them as he shrugged his shoulders. "Great then—shall we move on?" He flashed them a smile before turning around and heading on his way.

"Uh, yeah, let's…shall," Hiccup blinked, striding up next to where Jack now was.

It took Kristoff a moment before he shook his head and called out, "Hey, wait for me!" Rushing up on Jack's other side, he then slowed down and matched his friends' pace.

For a while, the group of friends remained silent, the only sound coming from their shoes as they walked on the icy snow. Jack eventually sighed, tousling his silver-white hair. "Um, if you guys were wondering, I was actually 'daydreaming' about Pitch—not a girl." He figured that since he didn't want to really have to go see a shrink, he'd just talk it out with those he felt most comfortable to talk to about Pitch.

"Oh…" Kristoff began to rub the back of his neck. "Pitch. Well, you could've been easily thinking about the whole idea of what if Pitch _was _actually a girl and what he, or she, I guess, would look and act like…"

Jack and Hiccup both halted in their walking, Kristoff too stopping along with them, and they just looked at the blonde-haired boy questioningly. Blinking, Kristoff merely looked back at the two with innocent brown eyes.

"What?" Kristoff glanced between the two completely clueless.

"Imagining Pitch…" Jack began, his face contorting at the thought.

"…as a girl…?" Hiccup finished, his face appearing like he had just taken a hit to the stomach.

"Well, it's a possibility…I mean, with guys, you just never know," Kristoff shrugged.

"Do you….do you know how twisted that thought is?" Jack chuckled in distaste, crossing his arms.

"Ah…well I know it's not as gross as—"

Jack put his hand up. He was almost positive the next few words that probably were about to roll right out of Kristoff's mouth was information he really didn't need to know. The whole idea and thought of imagining Pitch as the opposite gender was already disturbing enough. How exactly did Kristoff even come up with such a corruptive thought? Great—now he was probably going to be having nightmares about this in the future. He shuddered at the thought. He most definitely, probably just jinxed himself—or better yet, he cursed himself. Either way, he practically just sent himself a death sentence. Now how was he supposed to sleep at night knowing such a nightmare was lurking somewhere in his mind?

"You know what," Jack began with a sigh. "I don't think what you're about to say is something that needs to be shared." With that said, he began walking.

"Uh, yeah, I agree with Jack…" Hiccup edged forward.

And once again, Kristoff was left behind. He flailed his arms up, not getting what the big deal was. "What? I was just going to say—"

"Save it for your dog!" Jack hollered behind him, glancing back to Kristoff, catching his facial expression. He chuckled to himself, facing his gaze back forward.

"Sven? But he's—I've already…"

"What was that?" Jack nonchalantly called back. When he got no reply, he slowed down and slightly turned around. After seeing Kristoff just standing there, staring down at the floor in deep thought, he then fully stopped walking and turned around.

"What's up with him?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't know…do you think it's some sort of trick by any chance?"

Hiccup pursed his lips. "That's a possibility, actually…"

Suddenly Kristoff lifted his gaze with wide eyes. "Crap! Guys—I've—I've gotta go back to the school—I just remembered I was sentenced to a death penalty!"

Jack raised his eyebrows questioningly. When he soon understood what Kristoff was saying, a smug grin came to his face and he burst out into laughter. "You got detention again?! Really? What is this—your millionth time?"

Kristoff rolled his eyes. "Ha…ha…very funny… Sven was making it very hard to leave the house, okay?"

"Oh, Sven?" Jack scoffed with a smirk. "You're blaming this on your _dog?!_ Seriously? That's so old school blaming things on your dog! Like that one time you told the teacher Sven ate your homework back in, what, eighth grade?—oh! And how about that other time in _tenth _grade when you told Mr. Browski that he buried your backpack that had all of your school junk in your backyard?!"

"Hey!—that's all true!" Kristoff proclaimed. "He really did! You guys were there! Don't you remember when I had you come out in the middle of the night just to go un-dig what Sven had buried?!"

"Oh yeah! I remember that!" Jack burst out into another laughing fit. "Your giant Leonberger dog is crazy!"

"Wait," Hiccup intercepted, "is that that one night where I had to stay on watch and warn you guys when his—I mean, _your_ dog—woke up?"

Both Kristoff and Jack nodded their heads.

Hiccups eyes seemed to widen in horror. "Oh my—your dog really is crazy! I don't think it likes me that much!"

At this point, Jack was now on the verge of nearly crying. He remembered that night crystal clear. It was so random and just out of the blue when he got that phone call from Kristoff. He remembered it was on a Thursday night and that he was so ticked off when he got the call. That night it felt like it had taken him centuries to fall asleep—and right when he was actually starting to get tired, his phone had to go off.

"Jack! It's an emergency! Come to my house in five! I need you right now!" Kristoff had panicked over the phone.

"What? Kris—Kristoff, it's—it's twelve! We have school tomorrow! I have to wake up early to help North load his truck for that child donation program!" He had groaned.

Nicolas St. North (Jack just called him North for short), his uncle whom he lived with, was the CEO of a toy company and often liked to act like Santa Claus whenever Christmas came around and donate a large quantity of toys to schools, donation programs, and many other things that related to giving toys out to children for free. Jack was always busy and caught up with helping his uncle out during December. He wasn't quite sure whether it was the fact that North's name was much related to Jolly Old St. Nicolas' or if he was just a naturally, overdosed happy, giving man that inspired his uncle to be so charitable. But whatever the answer was, he was always caught up with helping his uncle out, whether it was wrapping a thousand toy airplanes or helping him lug over a dozen giant bags full of wrapped gifts into the truck.

"No, Jack! You don't understand! I'm at a crisis here! _We're _at a crisis here! Our _grades _are at a crisis! You remember how I said how my dog buried my backpack in the backyard? Yeah, well I wasn't joking! And that backpack has our group assignment for our U.S. History 2 class, which is due tomorrow! You know how that devil lady teacher isn't too fond of us and purposefully gives us bad grades at any given moment she can, right? You know our grades will plummet if we don't have that assignment for tomorrow!"

Hearing this, Jack had instantly sat straight up in bed exclaiming: "What?!"

"I know, I know—I'm sorry!—but it's Sven's fault! I don't even know why he took my backpack! But you need to come over here, quick—!"

Just then, North came bursting into Jack's room. "Jack! I heard you shout, is everything all right?" he exclaimed in his thick Russian accent.

"No, everything is not okay—" Jack jumped out of bed, grabbing his navy blue hoodie that hung on the white chair beside his desk and slipping it on "—I have to go over to Kristoff's and help him retrieve our homework that his _dog _buried!" He pushed past North, rushing out of his room, running down the dark hallway, then down the stairs; the glowing Christmas lights from the nicely decorated tree over to the left in the living room was illuminating a soft glow of a warm colors that seemed to settle down Jack's rising anger and irritation. By the time he got to the bottom of the stairs, he anchored his hand on the wooden rails and swung himself over to the right.

"Jack? Jack? Are you there?" Kristoff's voice sounded off.

Jack blinked, staring down at his cell. He almost forgot it was still on call. As he brought up the phone to his ears, he grabbed his moose brown winter boots and began to shove his feet in. "Yeah, I'm on my way—see you soon!" he quickly spoke as he struggled to get his boots on. Hanging up the phone, he then set it down on the nearby countertop, using both of his now free hands to yank the boots on. Grunting as he hopped on one foot to get his last shoe on, his foot finally broke through and he snatched his car keys, which hung on a nearby hook, to his black Highlander and ran out the door.

He had just gotten the car a few months ago, and it was all thanks to a bet he had made with North. His uncle had promised him that if he could throw seven snowballs and hit each target that he was directed to hit, then he'd get a car; if not, then Jack would have to serve his uncle in the toy shop for free for a whole two months. It was as simple as that, yet it wasn't as easy as it was said. Jack had practiced every single day with his snowball throwing skills in order to win that bet—and in the end it was definitely all worth it. He had gotten a brand new car, and his throwing skills improved. It was a win-win situation. And ever since that bet, he had never stopped practicing throwing snowballs—he found it was a productive way to train his throwing arm in baseball—plus he didn't have to go retrieve the ball each time he threw it.

By the time Jack had made it over to Kristoff's home, he had found Hiccup already was there, his slim, meatless form shivering in the cold air while they each stood outside in the front yard. Kristoff was holding two shovels in his hands. It was a funny thought to Jack to see how much Hiccup's changed—he now wasn't as small as he used to be then, all thanks to puberty.

The trio of friends glanced to one another, finally all eyes landing on Kristoff.

"So, what's the plan?" Hiccup spoke up first, pulling down the sleeves to his thick brown coat.

Kristoff took in a deep breath and began explaining. "Okay, so two of us are going to be shoveling in the backyard, while one of us stays on the lookout for Sven."

Jack and Hiccup glanced to each other and blinked.

"That's it? That's your big plan?" Jack cocked his right eyebrow.

Kristoff pursed his lips, seeming to be thinking it over and nodded his head with a shrug. "Yup. That's all I've got. What, do you have any _better _plans?" He sassily crossed his arms.

"What? No—of course not—it's just…" Hiccup took in a deep breath. "Why can't we all be digging? Wouldn't that be faster?"

Sighing, Kristoff shook his head. "No—someone has to be on the lookout for Sven."

Jack and Hiccup didn't quite get why looking out for their friend's dog was such a priority, but they didn't bother questioning. They both wanted to get at least _some _sleep in for that night, and they weren't going to get anywhere if they just stood there arguing over the plan, so they just let it slide on by like it was some sort of rumor and went with the plan.

"Okay, so…who wants to be on the lookout for Sven?" Kristoff looked between his friends. "Anybody? Anyone?"

Hiccup looked to Jack and sighed, raising his hand. "I guess I can do that."

"Great—if no one was going to volunteer, I would've assigned that job to you anyways," Kristoff stated as he handed one of the shovels over to Jack.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything."

"No—you assigned this job to me because I'm not exactly, bodily structured, huh? Well, looks can be deceiving, you know! You shouldn't stereotype me for being wimpy and weak all because my arms are like noodles!" Hiccup argued, pouting his lips like a child.

"No, I never said anything about that," Kristoff denied.

"Oh, but you thought it," Hiccup accused.

As the small quarrel went on, Jack had leisurely strolled on over to the gate that lead into Kristoff's backyard. He knew in the end Hiccup would probably cave in and let it go; he rarely ever held a grudge. Jack looked up at the night blue sky and sighed, leaning against the shovel he held. It was only a matter of seconds now…

"Hey…where'd Jack go?"

Jack's gaze dropped and he stared lazily at his friends.

They'd find him in _three_…

"He was right here a minute ago."

_Two…_

He stared humorously at the two as they began winding their heads around like an owl, glancing here and there until finally…

_One._

"Jack! There you are!"

What a big surprise that was.

"Are we going to get to work or not?" Jack hollered. He watched as the two nodded their heads and came towards him. By the time Kristoff was now opening the gate and leading them in, Jack heaved out a sigh. "Finally," he grumbled, being the last one to follow behind them.

Right then, all he really wanted to do was go back to his house and sleep. That's all he wanted at the moment. But he also wanted to survive the school year with fairly decent grades, and his history assignment that was due the next day sadly played a major role in it. If he didn't turn in this assignment, it'd practically be like his grade took a bullet in the chest—no, the _heart. _At the moment, the gun was merely getting pointed to his grade while getting cocked.

"So," Jack began as he stabbed his shovel into the shallow hole he and Kristoff had started to dig out of; they were now already in the backyard at the designated spot, and they've been digging for about fifteen minutes by now, "why exactly did your dog bury your backpack? I mean, I'm confused." He paused everything he was doing just to give Kristoff a look. It was a look that always seemed to present itself in moments like this—which was actually more often than it should ever have to reveal itself. "Why the heck would your dog—Sven—like, what? Is your dog mental? Or is he just the devil in disguise?"

"Hey—chillax—give my dog a break, okay? He has feelings too, you know," Kristoff defended, piercing his shovel in deeply and scooping out a large amount of snow.

"Ha, yeah," Jack snorted. "And you'll hurt your shovel's feelings for being so rough with it," he sarcastically sneered.

Kristoff snickered. "You know I didn't mean it like _that_…"

"Oh look, you're making your shovel cry—" Jack pointed to where a melting chunk of snow was drifting down the neck of Kristoff's shovel. "Kristoff! How could you? I mean, this is low. It's lowest of the low. If you can make a shovel cry, imagine how badly you'd make a _girl _cry. Man, whoever is destined to be your soul mate—sheesh, I feel really bad for her." He smirked at his friend jokingly.

"Shut up." Kristoff rolled his eyes.

"Hey, a-are you guys almost done there?" Hiccup called back to them as he tucked his hands under his arms.

"I don't know, Hiccup, are we almost done?" Jack grunted as he dug his shovel in deep.

Hiccup let out an audible sigh, his footsteps in the snow crunching loudly as he readjusted his feet. "I was just wondering," he huffed to himself.

As Kristoff and Jack continued on, their rhythmic movements becoming a melody stuck on repeat of _dig in, dig out, dig in, dig out, _they soon lost their consciousness of their body movement and just went with the flow. Their thoughts that kept speaking to them like a radio speaker talking about all the drama going on in the world was their only entertainment. It wasn't until what felt like centuries later, when they had already dug deep into the dirt ground, that they were released from their hypnotic movements.

"Uh, g-guys?" Hiccup's voice stuttered over to their ears.

Jack blinked, feeling some sweat trickle down the sides of his face—it was so twisted how he was working in the cold, yet he was somehow managing to _sweat_—wasn't that the heat's job to make him all grody and wet? He stopped digging and looked over to where Hiccup stood. Something seemed off. Hiccup appeared stiff, all except for his hands that kept balling up into fists and releasing, almost like they were breathing.

"What now?" Kristoff sighed, stabilizing his shovel into the ground and leaning against it.

"Y-y-you said something about warning you guys a—about Sven, r-right?" Hiccup nervously asked.

"Yeah…" Kristoff nodded his head.

"Oh, fancy that…uh, could you—could you please tell me, uh, err—" Hiccup cleared his throat. "Could you tell me what exactly would happen if I did just so happen to spot Sven?" he quickly spit out as if he had just taken a bite of some Fear Factor food.

Kristoff chuckled quietly to himself as he rubbed the back of his burning neck that was wrapped securely in a forest green scarf. This caused Jack to curiously look over to his blonde friend with narrow eyes.

"What exactly will Sven do, Kristoff?" he said, lowering his voice, the tone in his voice failing to hide its grimness. He knew Sven was a crazy dog…but he didn't know exactly _how _crazy he was. He was definitely a big dog—not the chubby, overeating type of big, either. "Well…?" he pressed since Kristoff didn't seem to speak up as fast as he normally would.

"Let's just say he won't make it very easy for us to get the job done…"

"U-uh, Kristoff? Jack?" Hiccup called out. "I think your do—_ah!_"

Instantly Jack and Kristoff snapped their heads up only to have found Hiccup on the ground, struggling to get up. Something seemed to be pulling him away. Hiccup had his hands outstretched to one of them while he called out to them for help. This scene looked much like it had come right out of a horror film. As Hiccup's shouts for help continued to go straight past Jack's and Kristoff's ears like a silent breeze, their wide eyes trailed behind their friend in hostage only to realize…

"Sven!" Kristoff yelped. "Quick! Let's finish up digging! Hiccup!—hold him off, will ya? Distract him! Keep him busy!"

"What?!" Hiccup looked at him like he was seeing a ghost. "Well I think I'm kind of already doing that!"

"What is your dog doing?" Jack quickly asked as he panicked and dug as fast as his arms would allow him to.

"He's just playing!" Kristoff huffed, stabbing his shovel down and scooping out a large amount of dirt. "Yes! Finally! There it is!"

And sure enough, there Kristoff's black backpack was, partly covered in sprinkles of dirt.

After they had successfully retrieved the backpack, they couldn't help but smile like they had just won the lottery.

"_Your dog is trying to eat me! He's got my foot! He's eating my foot! Help!"_

In the end Hiccup was, of course, perfectly fine, along with his foot, and Kristoff had to run at Sven and tackle him down like he normally would whenever he played football. Their grades stayed safe for the rest of the year; however, to say their late night backpack-retrieving operation was worth it would in a way have to be an overstatement, because as it turned out their history teacher got sick and had a substitute that next day. So for short: the due date got pushed back a day.

Jack didn't get enough sleep that night, and as much as he wanted to sleep in and not help North out with packing up his truck that morning, he still did. And as it turned out, there was a change of plans and this donation that North was doing was something much more different than his regular types of donations. North was having Jack help him load his truck with girly teenage items, clothes, and food… It was weird; North rarely ever did this kind of donation because, well, his expertise lied within toys—not things meant for anyone older than twelve. The only info Jack got out of this particular donation was that there were some sisters who had just lost their parents from their car slipping on black ice and going off a bridge and into the water a few days ago.

Jack had now finally settled down his laughter, but his smug grin stayed plastered on his face.

"Okay, what happened then is not funny, guys," Hiccup crossed his arms. "Your dog—I swear, was trying to chew off my foot."

"You still believe that?" Jack struggled to hold in another burst of laughter.

"Hey, if you were in my spot then, you'd believe this too," Hiccup defended.

"See? You guys _know_ that everything I've ever said about Sven is true! This morning he _was_ practically dragging me away from the door! Literally! He really didn't want me to go! I have proof right here!" Kristoff pointed down to his brown shoes. "You can see giant teeth marks!"

"Alright, alright," Jack caved in. "We know—your dog is overly attached to you—"

"What? You can't blame him! He's been with me ever since I was little! We've been best friends since day one! He gets a little bit of anxiety when I'm gone."

"Yeah, no kidding," Jack muttered under his breath.

"Now, I have to go serve my time in detention, but if you guys still have problems believing me, I'll gladly go down Memory Lane and go through some memories we've all experienced with Sven, just to prove I'm sane, after I'm released," Kristoff stated, turning on his heel.

Jack sighed, readjusting his navy blue backpack on his shoulders.

"Oh, and while I'm at detention, you guys can actually do something productive, and go through and decide our plans for the group date we're going to be doing before the Winter Ball!" Kristoff's voice echoed over to Jack's ears.

He heaved out another sigh and glanced over to Hiccup. He nearly forgot they hadn't decided what they were going to do yet for their big group date.

"Do you want to just go over to my place and decide there?" Hiccup suggested.

He nodded his head. "Yeah."

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**Yup. So you get to go down Memory Lane in this chapter... Maybe you were able to catch my small reference, though? ;)**

**And I know, this is like a filler chapter...it's not exactly the _bomb... _Although I hope you still enjoyed.**

**Thanks so much for reading! I'll try to update at least once a week, and possibly more, so... Until then. :D**


	7. For the First Time Since Forever

**Thank you so much to those who have reviewed! It means a lot to me! And I decided I'd open the 3rd perspective a little more, but I will mainly keep to Jack's and Elsa's POV. :D **

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Anna took a deep breath as she approached Elsa's door confidently. As she raised her hand, her confidence seemed to completely drain itself dry from her blood and her whole entire body froze. She pursed her lips and kept her eyes trained on the white door in front of her. Was she seriously getting cold feet now? This was her _sister _she was making an attempt at approaching! Her _sister! _What kind of person was afraid to speak to their own _sibling? _This was absolutely ridiculous! She came up to Elsa's door for a reason, and she was going to get the job she had tasked to herself done!

Taking in a deep breath, Anna pulled her fisted hand back, readying herself to face the impossible: knock on her sister's door. Okay, maybe that wasn't an impossible thing for her to do, since she's done it so many times in the past without hesitance….but it was different now. She no longer had that hope she once had back in the past. As she grew older, she had somehow lost that hope on the way.

"Stop being a scaredy-cat, Anna!" she scolded herself quietly. "You can do this…" She pursed her lips and stared boldly at the still white door in front of her. "You can _do _this!" she encouraged herself strongly.

She sucked in a deep breath through her nose, staring at the door as if she could catch it up in flames, and brought her hand to the door, lightly rapping on it. Immediately after the action was done, she swiftly composed herself, fixing her two pigtail braids and straightening out her cyan blue shirt that had a castle and her school's name imprinted across it. As she dusted her pants off, she noticed a few white splatters trailing down her folded up skinny jeans. She had to frown at this. She could've sworn that wasn't there before! How did she not notice it? Ugh—she really was trying to be extra careful in her painting class too! How in the world—

Suddenly the door slightly opened and she snapped her head up. She was going to grin and bear it! Grin and bear it. Grin and _bear _it…

"Elsa!" she chirped.

"Anna, I'm kind of busy right now…" Elsa looked away. Her cheeks were tinted a light pink, and soon enough, Anna realized her hands were splattered a light pink as well.

But she shook that thought off. Elsa was probably just getting cold…but it was so nice and toasty in their house…how could she be getting cold?—oh, what did it matter? She came here to do a job, and she was going to get it done! She needed to stop getting sidetracked with little things that weren't really necessary for her to notice…but what if—_NO! _she scolded silently.

"Look, I know—you've got stuff—I know, but tonight is the first game since Winter Break! Could you please, pretty please, _puh-lease_…" She begged, about ready to come down to her knees. "Please…come to this basketball game with me?" She bit her lower lip, her heart beating loudly in her ears. Elsa just _had _to say yes…she just had to…she couldn't say no. She wouldn't.

_Yes she could, and she would, _a voice echoed in her head. _After all, she's been able to say "No" to you for the past ten years. What makes you think she won't hesitate to say no now? _

"I don't know, Anna…I'm sorry but…" Elsa dropped her gaze, her left hand now fiddling with the silver door handle. "I don't think I can…"

"_Please! _C'mon—it's going to be one of the most exciting basketball games of the year! It's against DreamWorks High! Can you please come to this game? Just this once!" Anna clasped her hands together, bowing her head. She squeezed her eyes shut in fear of what she might see. She just really wanted Elsa to come with her to this game. Was that too much to ask? All she wanted to do was spend time with her. And since Elsa always seemed to say no to whenever she'd ask her to come hang out with her and her friends, or to go out and eat with her for any meal of the day, she decided she'd take a new route and see if she'd actually get somewhere, rather than end up at another dead end.

She heard Elsa sigh, and she couldn't help but peak up a little. Elsa still had her head turned away, and her hands were now playing with the door handle, turning it down, then bringing it back up. Oh gosh…she was going to say no, wasn't she? Anna's heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, but she still kept her form with her hands clasped tightly together, almost as if she was trying to grip onto the last string of will she had. But it seemed like the string had already completely slipped fast right out of her hands, burning them.

"Alright…" Elsa softly spoke. "I'll go with you."

Anna opened her mouth, ready to counter with another plea, but she stopped herself. "Wait, what?"

"I'll go with you to the game," Elsa smiled.

"You will?" Anna asked once more, just to make sure she wasn't hearing things. When Elsa nodded her head in confirmation, Anna jumped for joy shouting, "Yay! Okay!—we're going to be leaving in thirty minutes, okay? I have to be there early for cheer—!" She began heading down the hallway, practically bounding down to her room. She felt like she could explode with confetti! There was so much joy that consumed her! This was definitely a first for her! Never in her entire life did she ever think "Yes" was an actual answer that she'd live to hear come right out of her sister's mouth!

"This is going to be so much fun! You'll have so much fun! Oh, my gosh! I can't believe it! This is—ow, ow, ow—!" she ran into the stair rail that was beginning to curve down to the main floor.

"Are you—are you okay…?" Elsa called out, seeing the whole thing that happened. She slightly cringed as Anna ran into a wall, bouncing off it and quickly catching a painting that hung on the wall.

"Oh, wha? Yeah!" Anna laughed, seeming relieved. "I'm doing—I'm doing great! See you in thirty minutes!" And before Elsa knew it, she was already inside her room.

Elsa sighed, barely able to manage a small grin. Well, at least someone was excited that she was going. She wished she could've been as excited as Anna was about herself going… She sighed, sliding her left hand off of the door handle and began pushing her door shut with her right hand.

Suddenly she heard the sound of a door opening, and she snapped her head up, only to catch Anna quickly walking out of her room and placing the painting she had caught a few moments ago back on its hook.

"I just about hijacked this painting to my room," Anna sheepishly laughed, glancing quickly back at Elsa with the biggest grin she's ever seen her smile since their parents' death. "Well, anyway, see you soon!" she waved before walking inside her room and closing the door behind her.

"Yeah. See you soon…" Elsa barely spoke audible enough for anyone to hear, slowly closing her door.

Pursing her lips, she leaned her head for only a moment against her door. Quickly right after, though, she abruptly turned around, her ocean blue eyes instantly spotting the glass photo framed image of her parents. She slowly approached the picture, picking it up. It was so weird that it's been two years since their death. Two years. Two years since their parents died. Both her and Anna have made it off this long practically alone, and that amazed her. But of course they weren't alone where it was just the two of them, living in the giant mansion they've lived in since they were born. Elsa wasn't old enough to be a guardian for Anna. She was still seventeen, and it'd still be a while until she turned eighteen.

Their current guardians were Kai and Gerda, two household servants that have been in the family since long before Elsa and Anna were born; they were deeply trusted by every family member. However despite Kai and Gerda being pronounced their new guardians, nothing drastic changed around their daily routines around the house and how they treated one another. The only difference in their house was the absent of two souls.

In the will of their parents', they had given the majority of their money over to Elsa and Anna, and a good share over to Kai and Gerda. For every item in their home and their mansion, Arendelle Manor, these things had gone over to both Elsa and Anna to share. Arendelle Manor had been in the family for a long time and it was practically an ancient artifact—a family heirloom. According to family history, this house was a secret hideaway to their ancestors; supposedly these ancestors were of royalty, so in a sense, Elsa and Anna were princesses, or now in this case, a princess and a soon to be queen. But this didn't mean much to the two sisters. Despite their heightened background of luxuries and royal blood that would normally have tempted their dense, innocent minds when they were just a child to feel above everyone else and act like they were worth more than a thousand lives combined, they grew up to be everything but stuck up and rude. They grew up to be everything, people who grew up with nothing or not as much as they had, never expected them to be.

A lot of people were expecting the worst out of Elsa and Anna. And even as the two sisters grew up, they were still labeled with false nametags by some even though they clearly proved their nametags wrong. When their parents died at first, Elsa and Anna appeared barely fazed in front of the public, which was the exact opposite reaction to those who knew of the girls or had at least heard of their family name. But that's how they, Elsa and Anna, chose to appear to the public. The more the public understood that they didn't need to pity or act like they felt bad for the girls, the easier it would be for Elsa and Anna to feel normal and go back to the closest thing to what they could get that was normal. The two sisters were sad of course…but they just chose to keep their misery inside Arendelle Manor walls where a lot of emotions and problems were kept hidden.

They were no longer sad about their parents' death, Elsa and Anna. It now was a mere distant memory that pricked at their hearts like a pin every now and then. It would hurt every once and a while, but they got over it.

Elsa set the picture down back on her white desk, gazing over at her calendar that stood up on a silver frame holder nearby in the far corner of her desk. She couldn't believe it was still _only Tuesday. _This week was already going by so slow for her and she didn't even know why. She exhaled out a deep breath and slowly went over to sit on her bed that had white and ice blue covers on it.

She sucked in a sharp breath as she slowly settled down on her bed, hesitating to fully sit down on it. Her whole entire body was so sore and ached so badly! She had to ball her fists up on her knees before she fully allowed herself to actually sit. The pressure against her body from sitting made her feel like she had bruises all over. But technically she did have bruises all over. Her fair white skin was blotched with a deep purple blob high up on her right thigh and up on her right hip—practically every body part on her right side was bruised in deep shades of mostly purples and blacks. And even though the rest of her body that wasn't painted in deep colors appeared perfectly fine, that definitely did _not _mean they didn't feel the same amount of pain that her bruised body parts felt. Everywhere hurt for her—the only difference between her bruises and unbruised skin was that the pain where she got bruised was more amplified.

How she managed to even go to ice skating practice this morning without looking like her bones and energy she had was that of an old lady in her nineties—she had no clue! When she went to the frozen lake after school, she felt a little better when she skated—well, at least it didn't feel like she was lifting a thousand pounds whenever she'd lift a body part—it felt like half of that. Her soreness was starting to fade away…slightly.

Elsa heaved out a sigh and peered across the room at herself that reflected in her oval, white-framed vanity mirror that was directly above her matching white vanity hutch. Around the edges of her mirror near the white-framed edges were small designs of swirling snow and snowflakes that had a touch of glitter to them. Every time she'd sit in front of her mirror, she'd always get caught up in this trance with the delicate designs she absolutely loved to look at. If only she could be as delicate and full of beauty like those swirling, glittering designs.

She pursed her tinted red lips, examining her small form in the center of her mirror, sitting on her neat bed. Her bare legs looked so fragile and easy to break. She crossed them and tore her gaze away from her reflection. She slowly began to run her hands down her braid. Glancing up at her snowflake shaped clock, first admiring the thin wires that curved and outstretched to create the designs of a single snowflake, that stuck out of the small, center circle that told the time, embellished in jewels and shimmering glass, she then allowed her gaze to lead back to the center and look at the time.

Well, she might as well get ready. After all, she had just sold a contract to her sister that said she would go to this basketball game…at least the game should be interesting, so she wasn't at a lost cause. Elsa slowly slid off her bed, allowing the flats of her feet to touch the ground and began sliding her white shorts off, exchanging them for the same pants she had worn yesterday. She decided she'd keep the light blue sweater she wore on, since that seemed like a reasonable apparel she could wear out in public.

.

This was definitely a bad idea.

As Elsa sat in the middle of a screaming crowd where practically everyone was all dressed in a navy blue shirt that she had seen Anna wear earlier, she pursed her lips, trying to hide the distress that was clearly written across her face. She totally forgot how loud these games were!—especially the ones that were against DreamWorks High! Ugh! It's been way too long since she's actually gone to a school game! If only she had remembered! Then she would've brought herself some ear plugs! It'd be a miracle if she walked out of this gym _not _deaf!

Practically everyone would go to games that were Disney High against DreamWorks High, so of course it was going to be extra loud—the chances she _would _come home deaf were very high. Even people from other schools came to these games!

It wasn't a home game, and this was actually her first time ever stepping foot inside DreamWorks High. As much as she would've loved to leave the gym and take a walk outside, for she couldn't leave the game without Anna, she knew she'd probably get lost and who knows what would happen if students from the opposing school saw her.

Suddenly, the people around her that were clearly from her school, all bounced up to their feet, screaming louder than ever. Elsa could only cringe back deeper into her seat. She just wanted the game to be over and done with. She didn't even know what was going on in the game because the people who sat in front of her kept getting in front of her view, and she wasn't too obliged to have to stand, just to see what was going on, for it already pained her enough just to have to bring herself to sit down!—standing up would be way too hard for her to do! Her aching body wouldn't have it. Either she stayed seated, or she stayed standing. And considering how much effort and time she took just to sit down, well, she was obviously going to stay seated. Maybe if she weren't in so much pain physically, she may just actually join the crown in their screaming-jumping activities.

The only thing she knew about the basketball game at that current moment was that their team must have scored a basket or something. Throughout the whole entire game all she could see and hear were people jumping up and cheering for joy, or sitting down with a loud groan. The only times she would catch a clip or glimpse of the court was whenever the group of people in front of her were seated, or had left to go get something or take a bathroom break.

Finally when the fairly tall boy and two girls that sat beside him on either side had sat down, Elsa could see the court and the game that was going on. A loud groan could be heard throughout the crowd on her side and she saw the other students directly across from them that sat on their cold, uncomfortable bleachers immediately popping right out of their seats—this reminded her much of popcorn kernels popping into the white puffs they popped in to, oddly enough. She quickly glanced at the scoreboard, finding that both teams were now at a tie.

Heaving out a sigh, she then allowed her gaze to trail back to the opposing side. The majority of people on that side were wearing white t-shirts. It was kind of funny how similar both DreamWorks High and Disney High were. They both were known to have very good academics and were both rated one of the best high schools in the district. They both had students with a lot of school spirit and they both had practically the exact same school colors. There were only few simple differences.

For Disney high they had: Night Sky Blue and Glimmering Silver were their main school colors; they oftentimes associated with the sky and its hues during sunset, along with fireworks in the night blue sky, too. Their school symbol varied between an enchanted castle along with a pixie fairy, and this character the original founder had created, Mickey Mouse.

For DreamWorks High they had: Midnight Blue and Moonlight White was their main school colors; they oftentimes associated with the galaxy and its vast sparkling mixtures of purples, pinks, blues, and blacks, as well. Their mascot varied between clouds and a crescent moon, and a boy fishing while sitting on the crescent moon.

And of course for both schools, their lettering was different, but aside from their minor differences, people were still able to distinguish perfectly between the two schools. Somehow it was always obvious to tell which people went to which school; it was as obvious as distinguishing black from white.

Elsa continued to stare at the other school, her eyes scanning the large jumping crowd. They all shared the same faces of a child waking up on Christmas morning, seeing that their plate of cookies and glass of milk they had left for the one and only Santa Claus was now all gone, only crumbles and a small trace of milk as proof of what once used to be there left over. Her ocean blue eyes soon trailed down to the cheerleaders with navy blue bows tied in their high ponytails; the group of cheerleaders all wore white uniforms with navy blue as a compliment to the color. Some of the girls did back handsprings while others did high kicks. Seeing them do this effortlessly made her curve her spine and want to lift her own legs up.

Gosh, if only she wasn't this sore! She really wished it felt effortless for her whenever she'd do some trick out on the ice... Eventually, out of nowhere, her eyes caught a fairly tall figure emerging out of nowhere running up to one of the cheerleaders near the end and picking her up and spinning her around. This tall figure had silver-white hair, immediately telling her the tall figure's identity: Jack Frost.

"Is that his girlfriend..?" she heard her own voice quietly mumble.

Elsa leaned in a little, curiosity pulling her in. She stared at the brunette cheerleader Jack was now gently setting down before fully staring at Jack. He had a wide grin spread across his face which made Elsa cock her head a little. She then remembered seeing him the other day, early in the morning. She couldn't help but wonder what kind of a person he was… Was he nice? Was he funny? Suddenly Hans' smirking face flashed across her mind, causing her to abruptly lean back a little. Or was he some stuck-up jerk?

She began to chew on her lower lip and searched her own crowd to see if Hans was anywhere near. Eventually she found the jerk sitting on the higher seats not too far from her, sitting with his little crew of fools. He had a sickening grin that was mixed with a bit of a grimace. She couldn't help but grimace herself before slowly fixing her gaze back on the other baseball star belonging to the opposing school. She remembered how last year Jack and Hans nearly got into a fistfight. It was the talk of the school for the rest of the school year, and even this year, people still talked about it now.

Jack was now smirking and saying something to the brown-haired cheerleader. He seemed…different. He seemed refreshing as opposed to Hans. As she continued to stare, the people around her suddenly came to a stand, and she jumped back, blinking.

"C'mon—pass and shoot! Pass and shoot! You have an opening!" the guy in front of her shouted. Suddenly the crowd erupted into an outburst of groans, and the guy slumped back down into his seat.

Elsa quickly glanced over to the cheering people on the opposing side, seeing the cheerleaders jumping up and down, waving their pompoms around, before glancing to the basketball players on court. Some boys wore white whereas others wore dark blue jerseys; her team was dark blue for tonight. She then glanced over to the cheerleaders on their side dressed in the exact uniforms similar to DreamWorks High's cheerleaders, except the colors were swapped. When she found her sister in the clustering group of their cheerleaders, slightly frowning with a look of disappointment etched across her face, Elsa couldn't help but frown as well. Rapunzel soon approached Anna and said something her, to which she nodded.

Elsa felt a little shocked, but she quickly recovered. She had completely forgotten that Rapunzel was on the cheer team. She couldn't help but feel a little ashamed at herself. It was her own fault for locking herself up in her room and mainly only going out if she were going to the frozen lake. Even though Rapunzel was her best friend, they never really went out with each other to public places. It was mainly just at each other's houses where they hung out at, maybe occasionally out on a skating rink or at the frozen lake. How she and Rapunzel even became best friends was a complete mystery—really it just happened. It was a rare occasion whenever Elsa went out in public with Rapunzel. Maybe she should change that…

She barely even realized how isolated she had created herself to be. Was she really this shut out? Suddenly Rapunzel and Anna both did high kicks before shouting something out to their basketball team. She didn't know they could do that. _Apparently_… Her mind echoed to her in response to her question.

Soon Anna turned and searched the crowd, making eye contact with Elsa. Anna grinned widely and waved enthusiastically, and when Rapunzel turned around, she followed Anna's gaze and had spotted Elsa as well, waving with even more enthusiasm. Elsa sheepishly raised her hand, giving a very small wave by using her fingers and a small smile graced her lips.

"Hey…" Elsa softly spoke.

When Anna and Rapunzel returned back to cheering with wide grins on their faces, Elsa's smiled faded and she returned to watching the game as well. Suddenly everyone around her jumped up and her view got cut off, _again. _Elsa grimaced and rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long game.

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**Yay! There's that for you guys, and thanks so much for reading/reviewing/favoriting! **

**Don't worry, you'll see more of both Jack and Elsa in the same scene, and they will be in closer contact, rather than staring from across the room at a very vast distance. ;D**


	8. Behind Enemy Lines

It had been three, dreadfully long days, and during every single skating practice and all day through school, all Elsa could hear were the crowd's screams echoing throughout her head from the basketball game; that night her school had beaten DreamWorks High by only a few points or two, and the cheers that sounded off…. She just about went deaf! And now look at her! She couldn't focus! She knew she should've just said no to Anna! So why didn't she? Why _didn't _she?

_Because you've been way too busy doing absolutely nothing. C'mon, Elsa, let's face it: you've been shutting yourself out from the world for far too long. Do you even know what's in style now? Do you even know the latest gossip? Or are you still stuck in the world it was when you were in 3rd grade? Do you even know that there's a new president?_

Elsa shook her head as she walked down the hall through school. She was now heading to her locker, for the day was over now. At least the day was over for school. For her life, well, there was quite a bit of time left for that and who _knows _what's going to happen. Well, actually she did know: she was going to go to the frozen lake and continue practicing her figure skating. Unless she somehow got into a car accident or saw some famous rock star down the street, _or _ran into Jack Frost or worse, Hans Westerguard, yeah…so far all she knew was that she was just going to practically practice herself to death with her ice skating.

Sighing, she finally came up to her locker and lazily put in her combination. She began to grit her teeth when the crowds jeering screams came echoing back into her mind. Her hands cringed and tightened, and she pursed her lips into a grim smile. Was this normal? Oh, wait—this was her punishment for not having gone to a school game since forever, wasn't it? Oh, great. Fancy that. It was just so peachy. That was totally the reason.

"Ha," Elsa grunted, "be logical, Elsa," she grumbled to herself.

As she slipped her backpack off, she quickly unzipped it and began shoving all of her textbooks in. It was _finally _Friday. And thank _goodness _for that! Maybe over the weekend she would be able to completely exile all of those screaming voices that haunted her inside her head? Seriously, though. Those screaming voices from that basketball game were always there—even in her dreams! It was like she was cursed! So far each dream hadn't been very pleasant either. The screaming in her dream wasn't a very positive thing that was going on inside her head. The screaming wasn't ever people cheering for her while she skated during some fantasy figure skating competition—no, it wasn't anything like that at all. In her dreams, the screaming was of people running scared. For the past three nights, she's dreamed of herself being in some haunted house, in some freaky circus where there were grotesque clowns everywhere being cannibals, and where _she _was the monster and everyone was screaming at _her_, running away from _her._

Elsa zipped up her backpack and stared inside her now empty locker to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything. Closing her locker gently shut, she turned around, swinging her heavy back pack on with a grunt. Gosh! If she had known she was putting a thousand bricks in her backpack, she wouldn't have brought her backpack to hold it all in! She would've driven her car right over so she could pack them inside her car's trunk instead! Who cared if she destroyed a school brick wall! Her poor back and shoulders that were suffering were much more important.

She took in a deep breath, trying to ease her tense body, along with soothing her facial expression. She knew she looked like she was constipated or something. At least she wasn't as sore as she used to be three days ago…

Readjusting the heavy weight on her shoulders, slowly, her gaze then caught something she hadn't realized was there before. Across from her, painted on a large white piece of paper taped above the lockers was a large sign. Well, it was more of an advertisement, really. On it in bubbly, blue painted letters were the words of:

**WINTER BALL! JAN. 17****th**

**Hurry and buy your tickets!**

**$20 if you buy now!**

**$25 at the doors!**

Elsa shook her head in distaste. Who would want to pay for _that? _It was such a rip-off! They're practically robbing you! Well, in a way it was kind of handy, though, because it would dig out all of the jerks and show who was really a genuine sweet guy. Those who were real gentlemen were the ones that bought the ticket for both themselves _and_ their date—at least that's what she believed. And oftentimes Elsa would hear all of the rumors around the school of girls whose dates did the "cutest" thing ever and bought their ticket for them, so she did have somewhat a fairly good idea of what kind of guys most of the boys at her school were like.

Elsa hadn't been asked yet to the dance, which was partly part of the reason as to why she was also extremely happy that it was now finally Friday. The dance was next Saturday and normally guys didn't ask on the week of the dance. Her time limit was now pretty much up. She for sure knew that no one would ask her to the dance. And she was perfectly fine with that. Well…sort of. She kind of was bummed out she didn't get asked and that she wouldn't get to go…but at least her stomach would stop having small little butterfly attacks now. For some odd reason she always would get this weird feeling in the pit of her stomach whenever it was around the time of year when the boys would start asking—she just always got so nervous over nothing! Especially whenever the doorbell rang whenever it was "the time of the year."

The Winter Ball was normally the absolute _best _dance of the year, competing against Prom, which was half of the reason to where her sadness came from. Prom and the Winter Ball were always ranked the top best dances of the year, and a lot of people varied in their opinions. Some thought Prom was better, whereas others thought the Winter Ball was the best. In her opinion, the Winter Ball was the champion. She absolutely loved the Winter Ball. The decorations and setup itself were always so gorgeous and beautiful, and it was easiest for her to find a dress that matched the theme. So, that was the other half of her reason as to why she was a little upset.

Surprisingly, Elsa's been asked to the major dances over the past years. She wasn't exactly what you would call the flirtiest girl in school…at all…and she also wasn't too social with boys either. But somehow she was always lucky enough to get asked to the major dances.

Anna had already gotten asked at the beginning of December for the Winter Ball, and it was by Hercules. He was a senior and the quarterback for their football team. Personally Elsa thought the guy had a too blown up ego, but that was only whenever it came to football and impressing the ladies with his mighty strength—the guy was super big and bough, and was the strongest in the school. But deep down inside, he was a really good guy—she had to give him that. So overall she was glad he was the lucky boy to have asked her sister first before the rest could get to her. With how much he's worked, he deserved to have at least something good in his life.

When Elsa was a sophomore, she remembered she got asked by Eric. She couldn't quite remember his last name, but she did remember he was a senior then, was on the baseball team, and he was in a few of her classes, too. They actually talked a little, but nothing too big or serious. Her junior year she got asked by Dastan. She never really knew his last name, and she still has no clue as to what his last name is, even though he's in her neighborhood!—he practically lives across the street from her!—well, the house next door to the house across from her…but _still! _You'd think she'd know his last name by now… He was actually off at Alamut University. She was still somewhat fairly good friends with him…sort of. If saying hi to one another and making small conversation meant anything, then yeah, she still considered them friends.

Dastan was a grade above her then, and he was on the wrestling team—captain, even. He had brought their school team to nationals every year and had won first place each time. They first met each other by accident—he had accidently ran into her in the school halls, and soon, from there, he figured out they were neighbors; the whole time during the conversation she knew this, but didn't say anything because she didn't see any point in it.

Now, this year, she wouldn't be having any memories with who would ask her to the Winter Ball.

Elsa's lips twitched slightly down into a frown. It's not like it mattered much anyway…after all, it was just a stupid dance that made you from becoming rich to poor.

She sighed and turned away from the sign when her sister's voice met her ears: "Elsa! Elsa!"

She glanced up and turned around, catching sight of Anna in her cheer uniform, jumping above the swarming crowd of loosening students. By the time Anna had swerved her way through the roadblocks in her path, she rushed over to Elsa, who had owlish eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Elsa asked, hesitantly reaching her hand out to her panting sister, only to flinch her fingers away to her chest.

Anna burst out a deep breath, exasperated. "Elsa, I lost my phone! I can't find it anywhere! It's—it's been gone for three days, and the last time I can remember seeing it was when we were at that basketball game! Elsa! I think I dropped my phone in that gym! I think I left my phone at DreamWorks High!" she exclaimed, suddenly grabbing hold of her two pigtail braids in horror like it were the end of the world. "Oh, my gosh! What do I do?!" she panicked. "I need to call 911 or something! How am I supposed to retrieve my phone? I can't wait until another game! That's way too far away! And I don't even think the game will be held over there this time! Oh—! What do I do?! Elsa! Help! I need help!"

"Hey! Anna! Calm—_calm_ _down_…!" Elsa grabbed hold of her sister's shoulders.

Anna stared at her with wide glittering blue eyes. "Okay, I'm still. I'm still. I'm calm…"

Taking in a deep breath, Elsa spoke, "Are you sure you left it at DreamWorks High?"

"Yes! Yes! I'm positive! And I can't go over there and try to retrieve it because I'll be busy all day today! I have cheer practice right now, and right after, I'll be going to another basketball game over at Warner Bros. High! Do you know how far away that school is?! I'll probably be arriving home well after 12:00!" she spazzed.

"That late?" Elsa let go of her panting sister.

"Yes!" Anna whined. The strawberry blonde girl dropped her gaze, pouting her lower lip. Until suddenly, she snapped her eyes up, appearing as if she had just been told she had a secret admirer. Elsa couldn't help but slightly back away. Now what was she thinking?

"Elsa!" Anna grabbed hold of Elsa's shoulders.

Elsa couldn't help but look fearful. She quickly glanced between her sister's hands and back to her sister's brightening face. "Yes…?" she barely spoke out, not sure if she really wanted to hear what she was about to be told.

"_You_ can go to DreamWorks High and get my phone for me! It should be fairly easy to find, I think…maybe," she laughed sheepishly. "But still! You can get my phone for me! Please, oh please, oh _pretty_ _please! _Please say yes! I know this is a lot to ask, but I really, _really _need my phone! There are people who are texting me, and I feel bad enough that I haven't responded to them in three days! Oh! And Hercules told me he'd text me tonight about the plans for next week! Elsa, please, will you please do this for me?" Anna pulled on her best puppy dog face. "Please…?"

Elsa bit her lower lip and could feel the pressure closing in on her as she stared at Anna's begging eyes. And before she knew it, the answer of "yes" was practically rolling right off of her tongue. "Alright, fine… I'll get your phone for you. At least I'll try to…" Instantly after she heard her voice speak, the gentle smile displayed across her face out of her own nature, died, and she inwardly groaned. _No, what are you getting yourself into?!_

"Yes!" Anna squealed, jumping on Elsa and pulling her into a tight hug. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I promise I'll repay you somehow!" she quickly pulled away with a wide grin. "Oh! I have to go now, but thank you so much!" And she bounded off. "I love you!" she shouted before disappearing.

"Love you, too…" Elsa called out weakly.

As she stood there frozen, stunned at what just happened, she eventually turned on her heal and blinked a few times. Okay, so…wait, what just happened? Oh, yeah, she was going to go get Anna's cell phone…which was supposedly over at their school's biggest rivalry. Her eyes widened. Wait? What? No! She couldn't—she can't—no! _You have to! _a voice sounded off in her head. _You already gave her your word. You said you'd try… _Wait, yes, she had to.

Sucking in a deep breath, she pursed her lips and exhaled soothingly out. So…she was going to be going to over to DreamWorks High and walking inside a school she's only been in once. That was reassuring. Fantastic. She gritted her teeth and slowly began walking. Okay, she could do this. The least she could do was try, right? It's not like she just sold her soul to the devil. _Pffft, no, of course not,_ she told herself comfortingly. _You're only just…walking behind enemy lines where you could possibly meet your fate. No biggie._ And she managed a halfhearted grin. Alright. She was going to do this. She could do this. _She could do this!_

The whole way she walked down the halls, out the school, and over to her car, her facial expression stayed calm, and she chanted silent words of encouragement as her will to go. By the time she was seated into her car, had thrown her backpack over onto the passenger seat, and had placed her keys into the ignition, she drove off to her destination with an uneasy grin plastered across her face. This should be a piece of cake. All she was doing was finding her sister's cell phone in a gym she's only been in once. She knew where the gym was at DreamWorks High, right? Her heart sank a little, but she quickly shot that thought down with a reassuring thought of: _Of course you know where it is, silly!_

When Elsa arrived and was now parked in an empty parking space she had seen a red car pull out of, she turned the engine off and pulled out her keys, and that's when she froze. As she stared at the large high school building in perfect view in front of her, her adrenaline began to kick in at full dose, quickly rushing throughout her veins.

"Wait…what?" she quietly squeaked out.

What just happened? She blinked and gazed around her. What exactly _was _she doing? Fixing her gaze straight ahead of her, her heart nearly stopped and her eyes grew wide in distress. What was she doing in front of DreamWorks High? Wait…what just happened?! No! She couldn't go in there! No! What was she thinking?! Why did she say yes?! Oh gosh, she practically signed her death contract! What was she thinking?!

"I'm doomed…" She lightly laughed with much uneasiness. "Oh, gosh, I am so doomed. I'm more than that. I'm dead. Yay…" She continued to force out a soft laughter. "Aha, ha…ha…you really are just…brilliant, Elsa...you…" She allowed herself to slouch in her seat. "You're so stupid…"

As she sat in her car, she soon realized boys and girls emerging out of the school's doors, coming near her. Her eyes widened and her heart pounded in her chest. This was worse than having to sit through some horror movie! She was in enemy lines! What was she thinking?! She can't do this! Ugh—it was already too late! She practically promised to Anna she would do this! She told her she would try to find her phone! Plus she just wasted her car's gas just to come over here! There was no way she was going to waste her gas! Well, maybe…

She shook her head abruptly, setting her eyes straight with determination. She was going to do this. She had this. All she needed to do was go inside the school, find her way to the gym, and retrieve Anna's cell phone she supposedly lost in there. Oh but how did Anna really know she lost her phone in that particular gym? Maybe she should've done a major inspect throughout her whole entire house first, before she drove here first. Oh, why didn't she do that first? Why didn't she _think _to do that first? Anna was probably just overreacting and had missed a spot in their house to look, which was probably where her phone was!

Elsa perked up at this thought, readying her hand to place her car keys back into the ignition. Pursing her lips, she struggled to fight the urge she felt to stop what she was doing and stay parked where she was.

"Ugh!" she gave out, allowing her right hand to drop dead.

Alright. She'd _stay_… But there was no way she was going to step foot inside that school!—well, at least not yet, anyway. There were too many people loose that absolutely hated people like her who attended Disney High! She was going to wait it out. She was going to wait until…3:15 P.M…. That was about when everyone would be gone, far away from the school, right? Right…

Okay, maybe she wasn't all stupid. If she was dumb, then she definitely would've gone strolling on inside the school like fresh meat ready to be tackled and killed.

"Okay," she heaved out. She was going to wait for the perfect moment until she would go mad and walk inside that school alone. Gosh. She should've brought someone with her! Someone like Rapunzel! Ugh, why didn't she—wait…Rapunzel was on the cheer team. She'd be busy just like Anna. Elsa sighed. But she still should've brought someone with her…she should've brought her whole _school _with her.

Suddenly she heard voices laughing—_girl's _voices laughing. Immediately she realized how close people were getting to her and then realized another thing: her Disney High parking permit was hanging from her rearview mirror practically screaming to the whole world to come rioting over at her car and destroy it! Her ocean blue eyes widened to the size of the moon and her jaw dropped with a gasp. Quickly she snatched the Disney logoed permit and shoved it inside the small compartment next to her right side armrest, glancing around to make sure nobody saw it.

Soon the girly giggles and laughter she had heard earlier sounded off once more, and she caught sight of a group of what seemed to be four girls opening the car doors to the silver car right beside her. She quickly snatched her gaze away and froze.

By the time she heard the silver car's tires rolling away on the snow, she couldn't help but heave out a sigh of relief. A small white puff escaped her mouth in the process. Okay, she was doing okay. Now all she had to do was make sure she would be "okay" until 3:15 P.M.

Elsa glanced to the mini digital clock above her radio. She couldn't help but inwardly groan. It was only 2:32 P.M….

Waiting for the time to pass wasn't exactly something Elsa liked to anticipate for. But when her wide blue eyes stared piercingly at the small digital clock in front of her, taunting it to change the third number to the upcoming minute, she was willing to forestall for the time. There was now only two single minutes left. By the time the third number finally changed so the time read 3:14 P.M., she blinked and unbuckled herself.

"Alright, close enough," she huffed under her breath as she opened her door and stepped out, dusting off her flared royal blue chiffon dress that was embellished with sequins on the sweetheart bodice and had a sheer neckline and sleeves that only covered her shoulders. Over her dress she wore a black fitting blazer and wore black high-top sneakers. Biting her lower lip as the little butterflies in the pit of her stomach began to flutter a little, she locked her car, tucking the keys away in her blazer's pocket, and slammed the door shut.

"Okay, Elsa, you can do this," she encouraged to herself once more. Nodding her head, she pursed her rustic red lips and set off on her way. Self-consciously she over-crossed her blazer and pulled it closer to her chest, glancing behind her to find that there were only now six cars in the parking lot, including her own. Good…that was a good sign. That meant there would be fewer students in the school…or maybe those cars belonged to some of the teachers?

When Elsa had made her way across the road and up the icy steps and through the front doors of DreamWorks High, her stomach flipped, and her blood gushed her adrenaline throughout her entire body. She was officially behind enemy lines. She still could hardly believe she was actually going to go through with this! Who in their right mind would step inside a rivalry school that absolutely hated their own school and wished to shred it to pieces and burn it until it was nothing but ashes? Exactly. No one. No one except for _her_.

Taking in a deep breath, Elsa glanced to her right and left, indecisively choosing which way to go. "Was it right?" she mumbled, taking a few steps forward and glancing between her two choices. "Or was it left?" She began to chew on her right cheek.

_It was left…_ And she began heading left. Only after a few moments, she quickly turned on her heel. _Nope, it was right… _And she began heading down to the right side. Great—she was already losing her way! And she was only just beginning her mission to retrieve her sister's cell phone! How pathetic was that? She already felt so embarrassed and she didn't even have an audience! A sheepish smile lifted the edges of her lips as she pursed them.

As she walked down the ghostly hallway, she couldn't help but take slow cautious steps whenever she neared a door up ahead. There was always this fear holding her back from acting like a normal, civilized, school student and simply just walking past the door, which she assumed to be a classroom, naturally. But _no…_ She had to act like she was some FBI agent expecting the suspect to be hiding around the corner ready to jump out and shoot her down. Well, really her behavior was perfectly normal and quite smart, actually, because really: who _does _know what's waiting around the corner for their arrival? Especially considering her situation…yeah…she was being fairly smart about taking precaution? Because anyone from her school would—_Shut up! _she shouted inwardly to herself.

Who was she kidding? Of course no one from her school would act the way she was! She was just being childish about this all! She was letting her fears get the best of her.

Elsa sighed quietly as she found herself peaking around the corner when she noticed she was coming to an intersection in the hallways. "What are you so afraid of?" she whispered quietly to herself. "There's really no one even here!"

Sucking in a deep breath, she slowly released it and clenched her jaw in determination. She was going to stop being such a pansy and boldly walk around the hallways like she was an actual student that belonged here! Clenching her delicate ice cold hands, she released her grip on the air and boldly stepped out into the middle of the intersection. She immediately forced herself to shove away the fears building up in her head. She felt like she was naked—she felt so exposed not having a wall to shield her!—she immediately tried to conceal this feeling and shoved it to the corner where all of her fears were. She was going to be a big girl and do this. Gosh, why did she have to be such a wimp?

She once again clenched her fists and crossed her arms across her chest securely, beginning to head down to her left. As she walked down the empty hallway, she took notice of the many tall lockers that seemed to loom over her. These lockers were a midnight blue—much similar to the lockers at her school—in fact, they looked the exact same. While she took note of this, she suddenly passed a large sign taped above the lockers to her right and she walked right on by. But instantly, as the sigh she had seen registered in her mind in a clearer image, she halted in her steps like a car screeching to a stop and quickly walked back over to the sigh.

As she examined the hand-painted sign, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth slightly gaped open. It was funny because this almost felt like Déjà vu. She had seen that same poster before. Well, at least she'd seen one much similar to it. It was uncanny. As she read the words on the sign, her jaw seemed to loosen itself even more and she had to blink a few times.

**WINTER BALL! **

**Jan. 10****th**

**Hope to see you there!**

It was almost as if the sign she had seen was this sign's long lost brother or something…

"So…their school dance is tomorrow…?" she quietly spoke to herself as realization dawned on her. "Huh," she crossed her arms.

"Next time, warn me when I'm about to do something utterly stupid, okay?" She heard a male voice speak.

Instantly Elsa snapped her head to the source and her heart skipped a beat. Someone was coming… She immediately began to walk away with her eyes trained on where the source of the voice would eventually reveal themselves from, which was further down the left of her in the hallway she was in. And as she walked blindly backwards, she picked up her pace and began to turn a corner, suddenly colliding with something hard.

Gasping and jumping back a bit, she fixed her eyes on a fairly tall and built guy, and her heart had a mini heart attack.

"Whoa, watch yourself," he cautioned.

Elsa blinked. "I-I-I—" She glanced to her left down the hallway to where she saw two figures turning and starting to walk down. Her eyes widened. Quickly looking up at the blonde-haired boy in front of her, she opened and clamped her mouth shut, speechless. Pursing her lips, she gave the blonde an apologetic look before running past him. She didn't dare look back.

"Oh gosh, he knew!" she panicked, speaking under her breath. "He knew! He totally knew! He knew, he knew, he knew!" She then spotted a small indented area between the lockers where a fire hydrant was protected behind glass and she quickly hid in the condensed area, pressing her back up against the side of a locker, staring straight ahead at the side of the other locker. Panting lightly, she held her breath and closed her eyes, listening silently.

Gosh, she acted so _foolishly _in front of that guy! The least she could've done was _apologize…_ But no…she couldn't. She didn't have any time, though!—for the two figures she saw walking down the hallway on her left, whom were both boys—one of them was Jack Frost! And it's not like she was nervous to be in his presence…well, maybe she was…but it's not like she had some sort of crush on the guy! She only ran out of fear! Wait…yeah. It was fear. It wasn't the secret-admirer type of fear—no, of course not! How silly and absolutely pathetic would it be if someone like her, who attended a school where everyone absolutely hated the guy, had a secret liking for him? That'd just be sad and…impossible.

She ran because of her fear of him being someone completely just like Hans Westerguard. And she didn't want to see if he was really like Hans…she didn't want to know because then it'd be extremely disappointing for her. Plus if he was anything like Hans…the things he would do if he saw her would be just…treacherous.

Elsa sighed as she caught her breath and allowed her stupidity to catch up to her. Gosh, she now, officially, felt really dumb… Slowly opening her eyes, she listened intently, peering to her right. As she waited silently, she then suddenly realized a pair of two doors across from her that looked awfully familiar. And that's when it clicked. Those were the doors that led into the gym!

Thanking her lucky stars, Elsa poked her head out from behind the locker she leaned against. When she saw the coast was clear at the moment, she took her chances and quickly rushed over to the two doors and heaved one open, quickly checking her surroundings before slipping quietly in.

As she sucked in the familiar sight of the gym and the main basketball court, she couldn't help but grin a little in accomplishment. She had now made it to the gym. She actually did it. She actually had found her way to the gym! And even though it was sheer luck that she even found it, for the way she originally planned on going was definitely the wrong way, she accepted the fact and just went along with it. All she cared about now was finding Anna's cell phone. Well, at least making an attempt at finding it. She inhaled deeply before letting it out. Now that she had practically done the impossible, there was only one job left to do. She had a cell phone to find.

Pulling out her own cell phone, that was colored white like the snow, Elsa dialed Anna's number and waited for the ringtone of her sister's phone to reach her ears.

* * *

**Yes, I know... I really didn't expect this scene to be that long! I know there wasn't really a Jelsa moment, and I apologize for that. But next chapter, I promise, promise, PROMISE that there will be a full-on contact moment! It's going to be great. ;D**

**Thanks so much for the reviews guys! You're awesome, love you, and thanks for reading!**

**This week is a double-update (which I really shouldn't be writing right now because of certain school assignments I really should be getting done...but screw that!), so my next update will be either Saturday or Sunday! So keep an eye out for this upcoming chapter!**


	9. Caught in the Middle

He sucked in a deep breath, holding it in for only a moment before exhaling out as he slowly set the bar with two heavy weights on each end down. Closing his eyes as he allowed his burning arms to flop down, he heaved himself up so he was sitting upward and took a swig from his icy water bottle. Glancing up at the white round face that told the time, just above the door that lead to a staircase, which lead to the boy's locker room, he exhaled out deeply through is lips and averted his gaze to the shaggy, brown-haired boy whom was beside him, still doing bench presses.

"Are you almost done?" Jack asked as he felt a cool stream of sweat drip down the side of his face.

Hiccup, whose face appeared contorted and was a bright burning red, spoke through gritted teeth saying, "Yeah…almost…"

Jack nodded his head and glanced down to his navy blue water bottle that was almost empty. Pursing his lips, he then glanced back over to Hiccup after hearing a struggling grunt. He couldn't help but smirk a little.

"…just…one…more…"

Finishing off what was left of the cool water in his water bottle, Jack continued to stare at his friend. After hearing another struggling grunt, he then taunted, "Are you sure you're almost done?"

"You…be…" Hiccup began, but immediately stopped when he finally was bringing the heavy bar down and gently setting it back on its rack. "Done!" he cheered. "Whoo!"

"Yeah, it's about time," Jack joked as he stood up, stretching out his arms.

"Hey!—you be _quiet_, you—!" Hiccup shot awkwardly, his mind thinking too slow for his tongue; he clenched his fists, also taking a stand. "It's not my fault you got a head start!"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about. We started at the same time," Jack nonchalantly stated as he began heading towards the door with the clock above it. It now read exactly 3:00 P.M.—exactly on the dot. Perfect. That was the same time Kristoff would be released from his detention. This was the last session Kristoff would have to go to—for now, at least—who knows when he'll get sentenced back. Jack heaved out a sigh at the thought. It'd probably be two weeks from now when Kristoff would get his next detention call.

"Pfft, yeah, right," Hiccup sarcastically grumbled, quickly grabbing his own water bottle on the floor beside him, before following closely behind Jack.

When the two boys had silently made their way down the stairs and into the boy's locker room, Hiccup finally broke the echoing silence and spoke up, first clearing his throat. Jack simply carried on with his business, heading over to his black sports duffle bag, on the bench in the middle of the aisle of the lockers, that had his last name to the nickname he was best known by embedded with white thread on the very end of it. As he pulled out a small white towel, he then glanced up at Hiccup, who had too grabbed out his own towel from his own sports bag that sat right beside Jack's, and raised his eyebrows. "What?" he asked with much anticipation. He knew Hiccup had something to say; he knew the signs and gestures.

Hiccup, once again, cleared his throat before speaking up: "Uh, well…earlier…today…"

Jack stopped drying himself off, folding his arms, waiting patiently for the next few words.

"I, uh, saw you talking to, you know, Ms. Leana…"

Jack raised his eyebrows. That's not what he expected to hear. "Uh, yeah, I was talking to…Lola... Your point?" he asked, shoving his now sweaty towel back into his black bag and exchanging it for a fresh, clean black t-shirt.

"Well…" Hiccup paused. "Oh just forget it," he sighed.

"Alright." Jack shrugged. He knew where Hiccup was trying to aim at, but since he didn't bother to even shoot, Jack didn't feel that obligated to have to speak up. Yes, earlier today, he had spoken to Lola Leana. And yes, he had approached her first. But was that that big of a deal? He was only approaching her since they had the next class period together with their insane AP Chemistry teacher…and also because he may have a tiny, tiny crush on her…

But what? You couldn't blame him. She was termed as "smoking hot" and not to mention was single at the moment. What guy wouldn't want to try and date a girl like her? She was practically perfect. She had perfect skin, a perfect body, and was fun to hang around. She wasn't like other girls, and she didn't starve herself to death just to be nice and slim—she actually _exercised_ and _ate_ healthily. She was strong in school spirit, and was nice to everyone—even to those who you'd swear that they were hobos or just were plain anti to hygiene, or were just simply weird.

Jack never knew who Lola was until his sophomore year, when he had to leave middle school and start high school in a new building with an addition of new people to add to the group he already knew. Over the years he's always had this small, tiny, little crush on her. At the time, back when he was a mere sophomore, he always thought she was out of his league and figured he didn't want to even bother with girls like her, since he knew his chances of their relationship to even last a season were low. And it's not like he had a low self-esteem back then, he just based it off of the facts, and those were: girls like him and boys like himself hardly ever work out when it comes to being in a love relationship.

However, ever since his sophomore year of playing baseball on the varsity team for the first time ever, his status changed rapidly, and before he knew it, he was now considered out of _her _league. Really they were about the same now, but he was still slightly higher ranked. She was now just considered one of those girls who would most likely date guys like him—_popular_ guys—in fact, rumor has it that for the year book his junior year, he was originally supposed to be the guy in the photo for the Cutest Couple, and Lola was supposed to be the girl, since he and Lola supposedly were voted to be the Cutest Couple. But because he already was voted the funniest boy for Class Clown, the yearbook staff, which mostly consisted of girls who were in charge, decided that they'd keep him for most voted as Class Clown, and they'd take the next Cutest Couple that was second most voted for. But that was just a rumor Kristoff told him. He wasn't completely sure still.

To put things short about Jack and Lola's relationship: they were just friends edging onward to possibly something even more without even knowing it.

He's never asked her out or taken her to some school dance before. But he has considered these things. The only problem was, though, as to why he's never asked her out, was that his crush was small. It was very small to begin with; however, over the past years, his crush has grown. But it was still small. Which was why he claimed himself to not have any interests, other than possibly Courtney Malory because he's never exactly _looked _at Lola the way he's looked at other girls—other girls like Courtney. He just wasn't that desperate for her—for Lola—he didn't _care _enough. Yet he has thought about her lips once…and that one time was actually just barely, while he was doing his weightlifting workouts.

_Maybe…_

Jack lightly shook his head, glancing at Hiccup real fast to make sure he didn't see him do anything. Hiccup was busy pulling out his change of clothes and…organizing his sports bag? Jack rolled his eyes, returning back to his own bag.

.

By the time Jack was fully dressed in his clean clothes he had worn that day at school, along with Hiccup, too, dressed in his own attire, the two boys left the locker room with a fresh essence of lightly sprayed cologne. As they walked, Jack began folding his black leather jacket up a little, along with folding his tinted black, light hooded jacket he wore beneath it. When he was satisfied with the lengths of his sleeves to be slightly higher than his wrists, he then proceeded with his recomposing and went ahead and fixed his fairly large ring he wore on his right middle finger, straightening it; this ring he wore, the whole baseball team had, and designed on it was a baseball and bat; the rings were designed vampire-like.

Suddenly Hiccup jabbed his elbow into Jack's rib, causing him to look up sharply and glare. He was about to say something, but Hiccup beat him to it.

"Oh, my—Jack, there's Astrid!—what do I do?!" Hiccup panicked, keeping his bright green eyes trained on the girl not too far from them at her locker.

Immediately after hearing this, Jack's irritation died down and a small grin came to his face. "You're still in love with her? I thought you said you stopped loving her last term, and the term before that, and the year before that, and the—"

"Shhhh!" Hiccup hissed. "She might hear you!" He covered his hand over Jack's mouth.

Jack shoved his hand away from his mouth and pursed his lips, rolling his eyes as he lazily stuffed his hands in the pockets of his faded black jeans.

"What do I do? Do I talk to her? Walk past her and pretend I didn't notice her?" Hiccup continued panicking.

"Just be cool—go up and talk to her—you know, be normal. It should be easy. I mean, you have known her your whole life," Jack casually spoke as they neared closer to the blonde-haired girl dressed in a cheer uniform. Despite Astrid not exactly being the most girly-girl ever, she was on the cheer team—in fact, she was the flyer and cheer captain, due to her will to push herself hard and great leadership skills. She was probably considered one of the best, and she always brought their school team to nationals, in the end taking home the first place prize.

"Be normal, got it. You're right, this _should _be easy. Alright, here I go," Hiccup prepped himself before picking up his pace and leaving Jack behind.

When Hiccup approached Astrid, he leaned against the lockers and leisurely spoke, "Hey, Astrid. I see you're still here at school…" He awkwardly left it trailing off. When she didn't reply, he continued on with, "So, did you get asked to the Winter Ball?"

Astrid slammed her locker shut, pausing briefly before turning to Hiccup. When their eyes met, Hiccup soon became scared for his life and began realizing how bad of an idea this was. Instantly he began mentally slapping himself. Great. Now what did he say? He never was good with speaking to girls, despite his popularity. He really should've just walked past her like she wasn't there, now shouldn't have he?

"Are you here to mock me?" she spoke calmly, yet fiercely.

"Wha-what? N-n-no! Of course not!" Hiccup's heart began to speed. "I—I was just asking—I-I didn't know—I was being serious!"

"Oh, you don't know who asked me to the Winter Ball? Are you serious?" she shot, saying like he should know.

But he didn't. He had no clue. He wanted to look back at Jack and plead for some help, but he knew Astrid would just sock him. So he chained his nervous eyes to hers, hoping her eyes would stop looking like they were about ready to throw an axe at his own. He gulped and nodded, feeling his body temperature heat up.

"You're kidding…" Astrid spoke under her breath. "The whole entire _school _knows!"

"I-I'm not! Astrid," Hiccup grabbed hold of her by the arms, oblivious to how close he had gotten into her comfort zone—how close he had forced her into _his _comfort zone, "I promise you that I really don't have a clue! And that I'm sorry for even asking! I really didn't know it was a sensitive topic! I was just curious! Honest!"

She just stared at him with clear sky blue eyes. "Charming," she spoke with no emotion.

Hiccup opened his mouth and immediately clamped it shut as soon as her one word registered into his brain. She thought he was…charming? Wait, was she saying he was being cute? Wait, no, she never would think that. He liked her a lot, sure, but that didn't mean she liked him a lot. It was a lopsided relationship where one of them liked the other more than they probably should.

She seemed to have read his mind because soon after, she sighed, irked, saying, "Charming? Like, the guy who's way too much into drama and thinks his life is like some movie, so he practically sings every spoken word that comes out of his mouth…?" She cocked an eyebrow as she crossed her arms. "He's always looking at his own reflection…?" she added.

As her words sunk in, his hands loosened and slid down her arms slightly. "Oh," was all he could say. Charming? Really? He asked her? But… "What did you say?"

She dropped her gaze with a frustrated sigh. "'Yes'…I said, 'Yes'…" Her jaw tightened.

"What?! You said 'Yes'?!" he stressed out. "But…but why?"

She snapped her head up and stared at him. "Well what else was I _supposed _to say? You know you normally don't say 'No, I actually hate your guts!' to people as an answer!" she shot, struggling to pull her hands out of his own that now were holding tightly to hers. "And you know what? I've already had plenty of people pitying me and sympathizing for me, which I really don't need! So whatever you're about to say with the whole, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, Astrid,'" she mimicked his voice, "you can just stop! It's just a bunch of bull that I don't want to hear!"

He quickly glanced down, barely even noticing he had been holding her hands, and let go. But this didn't faze him. He just ignored it at the moment and continued on with: "Well, yeah, true—and yes, I understand—but this is _Charming! Charming Everett! _You do know the things he does to every girl he's ever taken to dances, right?"

"I do know—"

"Then why did you say 'Yes' to him? You clearly don't know that he practically _rapes _every girl he takes out on dates, right?" To say rape was a little too extreme for him to say, for the majority of girls that agree to go on a date with Charming knew what they were getting themselves into; however the part that they don't know is that they can't exactly refuse his "special" little offer at the end of each date, especially when he forces it upon them. The mere thought of Astrid being Charming's next target got on Hiccup's nerves really badly—he didn't like it one bit. It struck fear into him of the things that could possibly go wrong and happen.

"I can handle myself perfectly fine! You know that very well, Hiccup—" she jabbed a finger into his chest "—Horrendous—" she took another stab at his chest "—Haddock—" she readied to fire another blow "—the-freaking-_Third!" _she shot her finger into his chest.

He stumbled back a little, rubbing at his soring chest. It felt as if she had just poked a _hole _in him. But she did. There was a hole in his heart. He looked at her with sad eyes, his facial expression softening. He knew that. He knew she could handle herself perfectly fine. He knew that all too well… "I know…" He could feel something tugging at his heartstrings. Now what was this? He wasn't going to cry, now was he? Because that would be just sad if he did! He can't cry in front of her…especially not her. "It's just…" He gently brushed her fringe out of her eyes. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

Astrid seemed to loosen up and her fiery eyes were watered down, and she looked…sad. Almost disappointed, even. "Then why didn't _you_ just ask me?" she asked weakly.

Hiccup's brain shut down, and he just stared at her.

"Well?" she pressed.

Silence.

"If you _cared _so much, you should've just asked me yourself! Then you would know for sure that nothing _bad_ would happen! You would've had control. If it was any other guy, besides those you trust, would you still be having a spazz attack over this?"

_Yes. _He wanted to say yes… But he just couldn't.

"No…" He solemnly spoke.

"Then what makes Charming any different? There are most likely worse guys out there! He's not the only one! So why do you care so much whether or not I agree to go with Charming, huh?!" She forcefully shoved her hands into his chest.

"I don't know!" his voice broke out. "_I don't know!_"

"Then stop worrying about it!"

"I can't!"

"Why not?! It'd make your life a _whole _lot easier!"

He opened his mouth, but couldn't find any words to speak. He just stared at her like she had just taken his heart and thrown it down on the ground, letting it shatter into a million pieces, right before his eyes. Pursing his lips, he fought the urge in his arms and hands to just take her away and keep her safe—to hold her as his own. But he couldn't. That would be just too out of the ordinary to do. He never was the one to make the first move.

"Look," she sighed, still steaming from the anger within. "I—I have to go…" She abruptly turned around, readjusting the sports duffle bag that weighed down on her shoulder. "Goodbye, Hiccup," she spoke before heading off.

As Hiccup just stood there, he clenched his fists. Eventually he turned around, punching the blue coated lockers beside him with his left hand, only to wince and shake his hand in pain. Jack, who had been leaning against the wall casually while he waited, pushed himself off and walked over to Hiccup.

"Well," Jack began, "that looked…intense…"

Hiccup simply nodded his head as he rubbed his aching hand. "Yeah…intense…"

"Hey, are you alright?" Jack asked, pulling his hands that he had in his pockets the whole time out to cross his arms.

"I don't…" Hiccup shook his head. "I just don't _get_ it. I've been friends with Astrid since freshman year, ever since you and Kristoff _forced _me to 'suck it up' and 'be a man' and talk to her. How come it's still so hard for me to talk to her? I either always say the wrong things, or I just don't say what I really want at all. I always get so nervous, and I feel like I'm about ready to have a heart attack. Why can't I just _be_ and _feel_ normal around her? It'd make life so much easier!" He flailed his hands up.

Jack looked down. He couldn't answer that for him. He couldn't answer it because he's never felt that way before. He's always just been so confident and careless around everyone. It was just who he was. Heaving out a sigh, he tousled his glinting white hair. Slowly shaking his head, he spoke, "I don't know. Maybe it's fear. And maybe it's not. Who knows, right?"

"Yeah…I guess," Hiccup sighed.

And they both began slowly walking down the hallway in an empty silence. Jack glanced over at Hiccup, wanting to say something to lighten the mood, but he just wasn't sure if there was anything he could say that would lift the mood. He didn't know what was appropriate at the moment to say. As they turned a corner, Hiccup finally spoke up with a bit of a grin on his face. "Next time, warn me when I'm about to do something utterly stupid, okay?"

Nodding his head, Jack lightly shoved his friend to the side. Of course Hiccup would make a joke out of his own misery. In return, Hiccup shoved him back, and they both got into a shoving competition. It was only a few seconds later until they heard a familiar voice shout out to them when they stopped.

"Hey!—what in the world are you guys _doing?_" Kristoff called out, jogging up to them from down the hall.

Instantly Jack and Hiccup straightened themselves up, glancing quickly at each other with a bit of a grimace twisting their welcoming smiles.

"He started it," Hiccup blamed.

"And I ended it!" Jack exclaimed, shoving Hiccup harshly to the point to where he stumbled and fell.

Hiccup propped himself up onto his elbows, glaring a warning sign for only a second before his face softened and he rolled his eyes. Chuckling, Jack handed his fallen friend a hand and heaved him up when he grabbed hold of it.

"So, are we ready to go? Your detention's all served, now?" Hiccup asked, dusting off his dark blue jeans.

"Yup, I'm free and have served my time," Kristoff confirmed, grabbing hold of the ends of his black winter vest and readjusting it over his red plaid shirt with a heightened look of accomplishment written across his face. But then he froze, cocking his head a little to the side. "Hey, um, you guys didn't happen to see a girl as you came down this hall, now did you?" He bit his bottom lip.

Jack raised his eyebrows and glanced over to Hiccup who shared a mirrored expression. Girl? He wasn't talking about Astrid, was he? Astrid was the only girl they ever encountered, let alone saw. But Kristoff knew who Astrid was and wouldn't call her 'girl.'

"No…" Jack slowly said, feeling just the way he knew he sounded: unsure. "Why?"

Kristoff began rubbing the back of his neck. "I—well, this girl ran into me before I came down this hallway and I don't think I've ever seen her before…" He then shook his head. "But there are probably a ton of girls here that I still haven't even seen or met, yet, so I don't know why this girl is any special. Just forget I ever said anything."

"Huh." Jack folded his arms. "Well, if you say so. Oh! And before we make a break for it, I need to go to my locker and grab a text book, so, you guys can leave or come with me." He walked past his friends, and they followed with a shrug.

.

After Jack had retrieved his text book, the three friends set off and left their school building. They at first talked about the Winter Ball and confirmed their plans for it the whole way out of their school, and then their talking somehow transitioned into a snowball fight while they headed down the frozen, icy steps, trying to hit and knock each other down.

"Hey, wait! No! I'm going to fall!" Hiccup exclaimed, trying his best to keep his balance on the middle platform that split the top and bottom stairs closest to the school entrance and the sidewalk.

"Uh, that's the point, isn't it?" Kristoff grinned evilly as he took aim while standing near the very top of the stairs, but he never threw it, for he felt something come smashing against his back. "Wait, what?" he turned around, finding no one behind him. "Jack? That wasn't you, right?" he asked, fixing his gaze clear down to the bottom of the stairs.

Jack, who now stood at the bottom of the stairs, had figured it'd be easier and best if he reached the very bottom first, before he officially joined in on the snow war they had started between each other. So that's just what he did. He booked it down the icy steps as fast he could without slipping, before he'd bring on the _real _fight. It was a well-known fact around school that he was the best snowball fighter—he wasn't called Jack Frost for nothing.

Staring up at the blonde, he shook his head. He was good at throwing snowballs, sure, but he wasn't _that _good to have somehow hit Kristoff in the back when his back wasn't even facing him. He pursed his lips in concern and took a moment to think. After some time, he called out, "Hey, uh, guys? Let's stop…"

"What?" Kristoff blinked, dropping the snowball he still held in his hand.

"You want to stop?" Hiccup grabbed hold of the painted blue rails near the edge. "The Jack Frost wants to stop a snowball fight before it's even started?" he asked with a confused look.

"Uh…" Jack began to rub the back of his neck. "Yes…?"

Both Kristoff and Hiccup exchanged questioning glances, but they agreed and slowly, but surely, made their way down the icy steps without slipping and shattering their bones. By the time they reached where Jack was, they exploded with questions.

"So, why'd you want to call it off?" Hiccup was the first to ask.

"Yeah," Kristoff joined in. "I never thought I'd ever live to see the day where Mr. Jack Frost wouldn't want to battle in a _snowball_ fight!" He lightly punched Jack's arm playfully.

Jack simply rolled his eyes with a grin, but instantly that smile faded and he glanced between his two closest friends. "Look, I know this is 'out of the ordinary' for me, but…it's just a gut feeling. Just trust me with this…" He looked hopefully at Kristoff and Hiccup.

Eventually they nodded their heads to Jack's relief, and they began heading off on their way to their left down the sidewalk. It was only a few seconds after when a second snowball came crashing into Hiccup's back, shattering like glass before falling to the ground.

"Hey!" Hiccup halted in his steps. "Who did that?" he stared accusingly between the only two people he knew were present. "It was you, wasn't it?" he pointed a blaming finger towards Kristoff.

And as if a gun were pointing at him, Kristoff raised his hands in the air with a look of surprise. "Hey, it wasn't me! I didn't do anything!" His eyes quickly glanced over to the only suspect left.

Hiccup then aimed his blaming finger at Jack, and Jack raised his arms in the air, denying, "Don't blame me—I promise you it wasn't me."

"Oh, really?" Kristoff eyed him carefully. "How do we know that this wasn't a part of your big mastermind plan this whole entire time?"

"Wait—what?!" Jack's jaw dropped down to the floor. He really did have a reason for calling off that snowball fight! He really needed them to trust him and believe that it really wasn't him.

"You think you're just so—" Kristoff began, but got cutoff.

"You know what? Just forget about it. I'm fine. It's not like either of you guys took my neck and snapped it, right?" Hiccup came walking up to them to resume his spot in the middle with a half-smile.

"Right," Jack quickly agreed.

This only caused Kristoff to stare at him suspiciously, but he eventually nodded his head in agreement. When their argument settled down, they began heading on their way once more. Jack gripped onto his heavy textbook he still held with both hands, keeping his ears keen. He was waiting for something…. He was waiting for his turn.

Slightly turning around, he quickly swung his text book in defense and smashed the flying snowball aimed towards him with his book. Hiccup and Kristoff barely had any time to digest what just happened as they slightly turned to look, but Jack knew exactly what was going on. It was just as he had expected since the first hit.

They were getting ambushed.

Seconds after the attack, Jack stepped forward and scanned the area quickly. His ice blue eyes widened in alarm. "Run," he spoke. Both Kristoff and Hiccup stayed frozen in their spots, still not getting the situation they were in. And the longer Jack took in the sight before him, the faster his heart began to race with excitement and adrenaline. He quickly shouted, "GO! Go-go-go-go-go!" He waved his friends off, and they seemed to finally understand and unfreeze themselves after they heard the pure panic in his voice. "Take cover!" he hollered, rushing after them into their school's large yard as they jumped over the large snow piles along the sidewalk from it getting shoveled so often.

Quickly spotting a fairly large tree with a wide tree trunk that seemed good enough to shield him, Jack sprinted over to it, swiftly sliding his black sports bag off and tossing his text book on top of it when he crashed his back against the tree. Taking in deep breaths to catch his breath, constant white puffs that appeared like clouds escaping his mouth, he then swallowed and bent down. Forming a well packed ball of snow, he stood. He hoped they knew who they were dealing with. A sly smirk grew upon his lips as he moved out from his hiding spot and aimed.

* * *

It took Elsa longer than it should've to find Anna's cell phone, but she eventually did. Her ears, though, during the search, seemed to be playing tricks on her or something, because when she'd think she heard the ringing coming from one direction in the gym, it turned out it was coming from the other. Maybe this was a sign that she shouldn't be at DreamWorks High—which she couldn't agree more. She really shouldn't be at this school! Especially not _alone_.

"Oh well," Elsa sighed, staring down at Anna's black colored cell phone she now held in her hand after she had just bent down and retrieved it. She had found it slightly under the folded up bleachers, which she could only assume some mindless person must've kicked during their P.E. class… It made the most sense in her mind at least, for most people would have spotted the black, glossy cell phone in an instant and probably take it. It was a miracle itself that the phone had survived _and_ was still in the gym. Well, at least she would be coming home with good news for Anna….that is if she even made it out of this foreign high school building alive. Her death probably wasn't even going to be caused by manslaughter—it'd be by age, for she'll probably end up getting lost in this school building first, and never find her way out. She'd stay lost in here for eternity.

Pursing her lips into a grimace, she secured both her own and her sister's cell phone in each pocket of her blazer, before heading out of the doors to the gym. As soon as she stepped foot out of the gymnasium and the door shut behind her, she went into extreme precaution-FBI mode, and slowly made her way down the hallways, trying her best to not seem as inconspicuous as possible just in case luck wasn't in her favor and some random person would pass her by. In her head she tried to revision and map her steps back to the front doors. And surprisingly, for once, she actually made it back to the front entrance on her _very first try _without having to pass anyone.

She couldn't help but stare at the main entrance doors in amazement for a good solid minute. She couldn't believe she actually had found her way through the school! So maybe she wouldn't die in this school of old age after all…

As a small, gentle smile of relief lifted her lips, she exhaled out deeply and pushed the doors open, heading on her way out. She was so thrilled and excited to know that her last goal of survival now was to simply make it back to her car alive, which shouldn't be too hard, considering the easiest part for her was to walk from her car to the school doors…

When Elsa stepped foot outside, she allowed her body to bask in the cold for only a split-second before she headed off, and grabbed hold of the stair rail and began gliding down the icy steps. As much as she'd love to just stand there in the chilly air, it'd probably be best if she did the relaxing when she returned to her house—it only seemed logical, considering her state and situation. By the time she had made it safely to the middle platform, suddenly a snowball flew right before her eyes, and she jumped backwards with wide blue eyes. Blinking, another snowball crashed right beside her black sneakers. She jumped away from it, her left side running into the navy blue stair rail and her feet slightly slipping on the ice. Blinking, her heart pulse barely picking up a pace, she gasped for air, clinging onto the stair rail as her eyes gazed off in the distance and directly to the snow-covered ground she could have potentially fallen into.

While she tried to find her balance with her sliding shoes, she suddenly then began to realize voices shouting, and that there were quite a lot of voices shouting off in the distance. Gripping onto the stair rail tighter, feeling like she'd made indent marks with how hard she was gripping onto it, she snapped her head up and her eyes grew to the size of the moon. Snowballs were flying _everywhere! _

"Hey! Get the girl! She came out of the school building!" a distant voice echoed.

Elsa froze at the voice, and a few seconds later, she immediately glanced around, looking to see if there were any other girls around. She couldn't possibly be the girl they were talking about, right? As her wandering eyes glanced here and there, and she did a full circle turn, the horror finally settled within her pounding chest. She _was_ the only girl…meaning…

"Oh no…" She abruptly turned around, pressing her back against the stair rail. Spotting more than one figure pulling their arms back, readying their aim, her heart raced. They were all facing _her._

She yelped as she crouched down and shielded her head and neck. Almost instantly after she had just done so, she heard quite a number of snowballs smashing directly into the stair rail where she had just been, and some even landed beside her. But none hit her. At least not yet.

Pursing her lips, she stayed crouched down, too afraid to move. She closed her eyes shut and prepared herself for the upcoming blows she knew she would eventually have to face. It was only a matter of time now. Of course right when she thought everything was going all nice and smooth, everything had to get messed up towards the very end!

Her only main concern now: surviving whatever it was she was in. She wasn't even sure if this was a real snowball fight.

If it was supposed to be her against everyone else…well… Her eyes widened in horror as a realization dawned on her. What if some students from DreamWorks High knew she was here and this was their way of punishing her and torturing her as their enemy?!

"Why did you agree to do this?" she groaned to herself, suddenly feeling a snowball smash against the side of her right shoe. She began to bite her lower lip. She was doomed. _She was doomed, doomed, doomed, doomed—_

"Hey! Hey you! Girl!" she suddenly heard a male voice hollering out to her.

Her? Was he talking to her? Or was someone just calling out to her to ask her if she could stand up and be a better target? Because if that was the case…

"Girl! Hey! You in the blue!—_look at me!"_ the voice called out, this time sounding a little frustrated.

Elsa debated whether or not she should look. Well, it'd be rude of her to not look…but then if this was a trap, then she'd just pronounce herself stupid and probably never escape this mess. She slightly lowered her hands from protecting her neck. She couldn't believe she was going to do this, but maybe this person was here to be her hero…? _Ha. If only… Keep daydreaming, _a voice echoed throughout her head.

Sucking in a deep breath, she peaked behind her arms. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw nothing over the edge. But she wasn't even in a good position to see much, so taking in a deep breath, she set her jaw into determination and slowly crawled over to the blue painted rails. There probably was nothing there anyways. But when her eyes met a pair of stunning ice blue eyes, her heart stopped beating.

"Hey, are you okay?" the boy who belonged to the voice and the eyes asked.

Elsa could barely even work her own voice. She was completely caught off-guard and her brain seemed to have lost all activity and gone dead on her. But she forced herself to nod her head dumbly. Suddenly a snowball crashed and shattered a few centimeters away from her hand and she gasped, quickly pulling her right hand to her chest.

"Here! Quick, jump down!"

Hearing this seemed to cure Elsa's mental shock at seeing _the_ famous Jack Frost actually looking and talking to her from this close of a range. She shook her head. "What?! You want me to jump?"

Jack nodded his head. "Don't worry, I'll catch you! But you need go fast girl, because I can't prevent you from getting hit if you're up there!"

She was still somewhat stunned by the fact that Jack Frost was talking to her. But that didn't stop her from concluding that Jack wasn't a big fat jerk like Hans, but instead he was some insane lunatic. He expected her to jump off from a height that could potentially injure her ankles? No. She wasn't going to jump. It was about ten or more feet from where she sat to the ground. No. That was too far.

"Look, I _promise _I'll catch you! You're safe with me."

She chewed on her lower lip nervously before nodding her head. She couldn't believe she was actually going to do this…but she was. Breathing in deeply, she slid her bare legs against the icy snow beneath her and hung her legs over the ledge of the stairs. Fitting her small frame between the gap of the stair rails right where the middle platform connected with the step that was a part of the stairs that were closer to the school, she halted herself from fully pushing herself off to her fate. She stared down at Jack's open arms, and her stomach flipped at the height she soon realized she was actually up at.

"Are you sure you'll catch me?" she nervously asked, edging herself closer towards him and off the edge.

"I _promise _you, I will catch you. I know I'll catch you." He then broke his serious face, smiling a small sweet smile. "Plus, if it comforts you in any way if I say this, you look a thousand times lighter than the weights I bench pressed earlier today."

She opened her mouth but paused when his words became clear in her head. "Wait, what?" she gave him a look of confusion, a small smile gracing her lips, fear still holding her back.

"Look, I was just saying," he scratched the back of his head. "It's true, though, you do look a thousand times lighter than the weights I, uh, bench pressed earlier today," he shook his head with a small chuckle. "Look, you're gonna be fine. I'll catch you. I promise."

Pursing her lips, unsure whether or not she should be flattered, she quickly glanced behind her and widened her eyes at the sight of boys readying their aim at her. It was now or never. She quickly looked back to Jack and his outstretched arms. Well, they looked…stable… Clenching her teeth, she forced her hands to push herself off. And right when she began to regret her decision, she felt her hands first contact with his broad shoulders, immediately followed by a pair of hands firmly grabbing hold of her waist, stalling the speed of her fall. Her feet hit the snow-covered ground a lot more gently than she had expected, and it wasn't painful.

Elsa blinked, looking down at her shoes that now were on the ground, as he finished fully setting her down. As soon as his hands let go of her waist, she then remembered her hands and drew them quickly to her chest. When she looked up, he was staring down at her with this look on his face. It was then when she took note of his height. He was a good head taller than her—her forehead probably was just barely to the height of his jawline.

"I told you you're gonna be fine," Jack smirked, giving her no time to reply as he quickly glanced behind his back and shoved her against the wall, quickly turning around just in time to catch an icy snowball with his bare hands. Taking posture, he then threw the snowball back in the same direction.

Elsa just stared with wide owlish eyes, glancing over to where he had just thrown the snowball. When she saw the boy the snowball had hit, her face contorted. Squinting her eyes as she stared at the boy off in the distance, her breathing hitched in her throat. _It was Flynn Rider. _

Instantly her eyes gazed around at the other boys she could spot and she soon came to realize that she recognized them all. They were all on the baseball team from her school…and that meant Hans was probably somewhere. Her eyes widened in horror. That wasn't good. Gazing around at the scene, she then noticed two other boys, but they weren't from her school. She recognized them, though, in fact earlier today she saw them—one of them was with Jack, and the other she ran into.

Her heart just about stopped when her mind finally pieced everything together like a puzzle. Her school and their school were having a snowball fight…they were at war.

And she was stuck in the middle of it all.

* * *

** Guys! It's October! I'm so excited! I love autumn and winter! These last three months I think are the best out of the whole year! :DDDDDD Anyway...**

**OM-freaking, gosh! This chapter I could've, and probably should've, split into two...but I promised you guys some full-on contact with Jack and Elsa! And I have this loyalty program I strictly follow by - haha, no, but I didn't want to go back on my word. I hope this chapter was fine with its length and that you guys still enjoyed it. You got some Hiccstrid and Jelsa, at least...right? ;D**

**Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews, favorites, follows AND for especially taking the time to read this! :)**


	10. In the End

It wasn't intentional to be hiding behind none other than DreamWork's baseball star Jack Frost, but Elsa couldn't help it! Her own _school _had thought she was a student at DreamWorks High and he seemed to be the only one there to come to her aid like some superhero… Did the boys from her school really not recognize her from Disney High? _Clearly, _not. Which that kind of irked her a little, actually, because the majority of the boys on Disney's baseball team were seniors just like her!—she'd like to think they've at least seen her _once _in their entire life throughout high school! Some of them even went to the same junior high and elementary school as her! Ugh, but it's not like she cared much for them anyway—they were all jerks and it's not like them not knowing or at least _recognizing _who she was ripped her heart up; however, it did frustrate her just a little bit.

Elsa's heart raced as soon as Jack turned around, after catching another snowball and throwing it back. "How're you doing?" he smiled with much exhilaration.

"Great!" she barely managed to squeak out. "And you?" When her eyes locked with his, she felt like her heart would've pounding right out of her chest. His eyes….they were looking at her. He was looking at her. He was probably seeing right through her. Oh gosh, he probably knew she didn't belong to his school! It was only a matter of seconds before he probably decided to take her as their prisoner to stop this war! And to think she nearly allowed her thoughts to compliment on how his eyes were absolutely stunning! It was such a shame that someone with such an attractive face—wait, what…?

Her heart stopped.

She felt like she just broke the law. How could she think that? No, she couldn't allow herself to think like that of him. It was just a waste of thoughts. But now she understood why girls were head over heels over him… Despite her school being arch enemies with his school, that didn't mean he didn't make girl's hearts at her school flutter like a hummingbird's wing. She knew girls at her school had a crush on him—she always would hear at least some girl in one of her classes whispering to a few other girls saying how it was such a shame that someone like Jack had to go to the wrong school.

"Well, let's just say if this were an actual, serious sport, I'd make it to the Olympics," Jack replied. He quickly glanced behind himself before warning "Duck!" as he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down.

Elsa gasped, spotting a snowball flying right towards her face before her whole world seemed to shift. She watched the white bullet smash into the wall behind her, leaving a mark. She looked to Jack with alarmed eyes. Would he have allowed her to get hit if he knew she went to the opposing school? So then maybe he didn't know she went to Disney High…? Oh she hoped he didn't know…it'd be easier that way.

"Do you trust me?" he suddenly spoke, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Excuse me?" she asked, not quite catching his words.

"Do you trust me?" he asked once more, his ice blue eyes piercing straight through the cores of her own.

Did she trust him? What kind of question was that? She just _met _him.

"I'll take that as a subtle yes—" he chuckled before grabbing hold of her hand— "try to keep up, alright?"

Before she could respond, the next thing she knew she was up to her feet and running. She stared at Jack as he led the way for only a second, before taking this moment to glance around. Snowballs were flying everywhere! It was amazing she made it this far without getting hit!

"Here, hide behind this tree," Jack ordered as he let go of her hand, running up ahead. He quickly glanced back at her, watching as she came to a stop, holding her hands close to her chest, staring at the tree questionably, but she nodded her head. When she looked over in his direction, he merely gave her a salute before facing his head forward.

As he came up beside Kristoff, who was hiding behind a tree, he quickly said: "So, how many are there?"

"Jack! Where have you been?!" Kristoff exclaimed as he bent down and made a snowball, quickly stepping out from behind the tree and throwing it before stepping back into the tree's protection.

"Heh, well, a girl was in need of some help," he bent down, creating a snowball, "and I came to her aid," he simply chuckled.

"A girl?" Kristoff glanced down to him.

"Yes—now give me the status!—I'll talk more afterwards." He stood up, glancing towards the tree he told the girl to hide behind. Well, it seemed like snowballs had stopped aiming at her.

Kristoff shook his head with a sigh. "We're really outnumbered—it's Disney's entire baseball team out there, I think," he grimaced.

"Just as I expected," Jack huffed, stepping out from behind the tree and throwing his snowball at the first target he saw. He smugly grinned when he saw it smash into the head of his target. Quickly he took cover behind the fairly large tree that had a few white dots on the bark of it. Turning to Kristoff, he asked, "Have you seen Hans?"

"Hans?" Kristoff raised his eyebrows. Pursing his lips, he slowly shook his head. "No…I haven't seen him anywhere, actually, now that I think about it." He turned away from Jack and called out to Hiccup: "Hey, Hiccup!"

Hiccup looked up from his hands that were forming a snowball.

"Have you seen Hans anywhere?"

Hiccup pursed his lips, shaking his head, before he stood up from his crouch and threw the snowball he had just created. His serious face suddenly brightened and he jumped a little out of excitement, afterwards quickly booking his way over to where Jack and Kristoff were. "Did you guys see that? I totally hit that guy in the face!" he exclaimed. When he saw Jack and Kristoff shaking their heads, his face dropped. "What? But—that—argh! Right when I do something so significantly amazing, no one ever sees it!"

Jack chuckled, bending down, beginning to rake the snow together. His fingers were red and beginning to numb, but he ignored it; as long as he could still move his fingers, he was good. Looking up to his two friends, whom were peeking out from behind the tree with grimaces, a small knowing smile came to his face and he stood up. He had a plan.

"There's way too many of them," Kristoff sighed, first glancing to Hiccup, who only nodded his head in agreement, before the two pulled their gaze over to Jack.

As soon as Hiccup saw his face, he frowned. "Wait, no," he began, reading the silent words playing across Jack's face. "No, we can't—I know what you're thinking, there—and it's an absolute no…" When he didn't see Jack's facial expression falter, he then added, "We're gonna _die…_"

Jack simply crossed his arms with a challenging look. He knew very well that they were outnumbered. But that didn't mean everything was _doomed. _It wasn't like this was World War II, or even World War III. They weren't fighting with guns and bombs. This was just a battle between two schools, and their weapons were snow. Nothing too dangerous, right? And sure, their chances were small at victory, but that didn't mean they didn't have a single chance at winning this battle; plus there was no way he was going to allow them to already wave a white flag knowing they didn't give it their best shot. "Oh, c'mon? For old time's sakes," Jack pouted, managing a small half-smile. He placed his hand in the center, glancing between his two friends.

Kristoff rolled his eyes, placing his gloved hands on top of Jack's bare hand. "Oh, what the heck—why not?" he grinned.

Hiccup glanced between the two with large green eyes. Heaving out a sigh, he shook his head, looking away as he placed his hand on top of Kristoff's gloved one. "Oh, alright…" He muttered, then flashed his eyes back on Jack and Kristoff. "Just know that if we lose this and make a big fool out of ourselves, it's not my fault."

Jack smirked. "Oh, that's the least of my concern because I _know _we'll win this."

Hiccup pursed his lips unsure, but a small confident smile broke out across his face. "Well, then, first one to get hit pays for the dates tomorrow," he wagered.

"And first one to hit Flynn Rider in the face will win an invisible plaque of honor bestowed by me," Kristoff added.

Jack glanced between his two friends. His ultimate plan they all knew was simple and easy: they were going to wing it and give it their all. They were going to go out into the open and stop hiding. They've done it before and won, miraculously, so why shouldn't that mean they could still win again? "All right, gentlemen, keep an eye out for Hans, and let's break!" he ended, as the three broke apart and ran out into the open.

Immediately as soon as the three stepped out, snowballs came flying right on by. Jack instantly ran out into the clear, taking aim and throwing the snowball he still had in his hand. Right afterwards, he scooped down and picked up a handful of snow, quickly patting it down into a ball before throwing that as well. He continued with this progress of creating then throwing, then of creating and throwing once again; and with each throw, he took a step and kept on edging closer to a few of the attackers. So far he hadn't gotten hit, and he seemed to be hitting every single target he aimed at.

His confidence heightened, and his playful smirk deepened. When he spotted a few of the attackers on the steps leading up to his school, he quickly scooped up a handful of snow, patting it down, and jumped up on a nearby tree's trunk as a boost and threw his snowball with precise aim. Landing down on the ground, he watched as his snowball hit one of the boys, causing that boy to stumble on the icy steps and run into another guy nearby, causing him to stumble and hit another guy, creating the domino effect and they all tumbled down.

"And down they go," he snickered.

"Jack!" Kristoff's voice suddenly reached his ears.

Jack turned, finding Kristoff pointing off in the distance. Immediately his eyes followed the direction, and there he saw Hans with Flynn, both of them backing up, getting ready to take off. His face turned stern, and for a split second, he and Hans made eye contact. Hans simply curled his lips up into a devious smirk before shouting, "Fall back, boys. We're done here."

As Jack watched Hans and his men run off to their cars and drive away with a confused look, Kristoff and Hiccup came jogging up beside his side. Until the cars had gone out of sight, no one spoke. Hiccup was the first to speak up eventually after everything had settled down in an unnerving peace.

"Well, that was weird…"

"What did they want?" Kristoff brushed off some snow from his arm.

Jack could only shake his head. "Well, if it's Hans, we can only assume the obvious: he was up to no good…" He pursed his lips. He knew Hans and him weren't exactly the best of buds—in fact, his relationship with Pitch was quite similar to Hans, except Hans had something a little more mysterious about him which caused more tension with him—but for him to randomly out of the blue come and attack them at their school? Sure, they were enemies, but Hans has never done something like this in the past. If he were to attack, it was normally during baseball season. But it wasn't baseball season. And that left Jack at a dead end.

Sheesh. First they get ambushed, then he had to go play superhero and rescue that girl, and then— Jack's eyes widened. _The girl. _He left her to stay hidden behind that tree…

Abruptly he turned around and dashed over to the tree. He could hear Hiccup's and Kristoff's voices calling after him, but he tuned them out and tuned in the questions in his head. First off, who was that girl? He's never seen her before at their school… Was she a transfer? Or maybe she was a freshman taking a tour of the school?—no, no, she seemed a little older than a ninth grader. Perhaps she was just someone he's never cared to notice before? Although he felt like he'd notice her if they were to ever cross paths in the hall… He shook his head as soon as he neared the tree. He's probably just never cared to notice her before.

Running past the tree to check behind it, he gritted his teeth and stopped at the sight.

_She was gone._

He rubbed the back of his neck, staring at the presence of nothing. Where'd she go? He didn't remember ever seeing her go somewhere else…but then again, he wasn't exactly keeping an eye on her. It wasn't long until his friends caught up with him, throwing their confused faces at him.

"Jack," Kristoff breathed, coming up beside him. "What the heck? What's the rush—oh…." When the blonde followed Jack's gaze, he seemed to piece what little he knew together. "Is this where you left the girl, or something?"

"Girl? What girl?" Hiccup slowed his running to a stop.

"There was a girl over there on the steps that got caught up in the snowball fight—I noticed her, saw she needed help, and came to her aid. I told her to jump off of the steps and that I'd catch her, and then after I finally got her to do so, I brought her over here to hide," Jack explained. "And now, she's…gone…" He sighed.

"What was her name?" Hiccup asked, stepping up to the tree and looking up in the leafless branches.

"I—" Jack shook his head— "I don't know. I didn't ask. And I didn't recognize her from our school either."

"You didn't recognize her…?" Hiccup muttered as he took this in to thought.

Kristoff, on the other hand seemed to beam up at this. "Hey, by any chance, did she happen to be wearing a blue dress and black jacket thingy on? And did she have blonde hair? Like, really blonde? Like, uh, platinum blonde hair?"

This caused Jack to furrow his eyebrows. He slowly began nodding his head, glancing up at Kristoff. "Yeah…she did—oh, and that black jacket thingy—I'm pretty sure it's called a blazer," he informed, clicking his tongue.

"Pffft, yeah, yeah, whatever—black jacket thingy and blazer—same thing," Kristoff shrugged off. "But this girl—she's the same one I ran into earlier today!"

"The one you've never seen in your entire local life?" Hiccup cut in, stepping away from the tree.

"Yeah!" Kristoff exclaimed.

"Great!" Hiccup exclaimed sarcastically. "Was she cute?" he suddenly asked, glancing between Jack and Kristoff, catching them off guard.

Jack exchanged glances with Kristoff, both widening their eyes in alarm. "Uh…" Jack began to tousle his hair a little. "Yes?" He then looked over to Kristoff who shrugged and nodded his head in agreement. To say cute was a little bit of an understatement for her… He shook his head, readjusting his stance. "Why—why are you asking us this? Aren't you in love with Astrid?"

Hiccup sighed. "I'm asking you this so I can find someone new and possibly fall in love with _her_, so I can get over _Astrid…_" He spoke through gritted teeth near the end.

"And why might you want to get over Astrid? You two never have even dated…" Kristoff cocked an eyebrow.

"Ugh! Look: I need to get over Astrid because we all know I'm going to be a too big of a wimp for the rest of my life around her! So I've finally come to a conclusion for my love problems, and that is: find someone new!" He flailed his arms up. "This is perfectly logical, isn't it?" he forced a smile upon his face as he spoke.

Jack pursed his lips and crossed his arms, shaking his head lightly. Chuckling under his breath, he stepped up to Hiccup, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Look, um…even though you may find someone new that you may be attracted to, that doesn't mean it'll kill your feelings for Astrid. Just saying." He patted him on the back.

"Wow… Thank you, for, uh, nothing. You, Jack, are really such a great friend," Hiccup dryly laughed.

Rolling his eyes, Jack stepped over to the cold, sappy maple tree, staring down at the sparkling snow . Sighing, he crouched down and touched the stiff ground, slowly tracing his finger across the icy top. He pursed his lips and rested his elbows against his knees. To say he wasn't the least bit disappointed that she wasn't still here when he came over here was a small white lie. He actually did feel a little upset to see that she wasn't still here. There was something about her that seemed to infatuate him… But why did it matter anyways? He dropped his gaze. And that's when he noticed it. He noticed a smaller shoe footprint right next to his right shoe. Blinking, his bright blue eyes soon began to follow a trail of small footprints across the snow and up to the road.

"Well, we should probably get going." Hiccup sighed. "Coming, Jack?"

It took him a moment to respond, but he eventually nodded his head as he heaved himself up to a stand. He stared with hard eyes for a few more seconds, and finally turned around hesitantly, leaving with Hiccup and Kristoff.

"So, who got hit first with a snowball?" Hiccup asked.

Jack cockily stated he didn't get hit, whereas Hiccup and Kristoff blew up into an argument on who got hit first.

* * *

Elsa panted, holding her hands close to her chest as she pressed her back against the cool material to her driver's seat. Her eyes were closed, and her heart was on the run. She felt like her breath would never catch up with her heart. She's never forced herself to run so fast in her entire life! Running never was that big of a problem for her…but she strained herself too much this time. She pushed herself too hard. But she _had _to run that fast. She needed to slip right on by like a ghost.

As soon as she saw Hans and his crew run off to their cars, she took that moment to run herself. Granted she probably could've found a much better time to make a run for it to her car, but it was much too late for that—those opportune moments already passed by like a chill in the night and this was her last chance.

She didn't want anyone to see her. Not the boys from her school, and not Jack and his friends. So she took that moment and bolted to her car, and now here she was, gasping for air in her car. It'd be bad business if the boys from her school saw her, though, so in other words, she'd rather be struggling to breathe in oxygen into her lungs, rather than deal with the boys from her school. And for Jack and his friends…well, they'd be… _They'd be better off if they never met you at all, _a voice in her head echoed. _In fact, a lot of people would probably have been better off if they never met you at all. You never should have met yourself. Oh, wait…you don't even know who you are, though, do you? You're just nobody, Elsa. Just stop fantasizing and give the world what it wants._

She abruptly shook her head. "_Shut…up…" _She whispered to herself. She waited in the empty silence for any sounds. All she heard was the pounding rhythm of her beating heart. Opening her eyes, her rugged breathing finally smoothing out, she stared through her windshield and watched as Jack turned around from his standing point and ran. He was headed over to the tree she was just behind mere seconds ago. She began to bite her lower lip, fumbling around in her pockets for her car keys and shoving it into the ignition with quite the struggle. By the time she finally got her car started, she headed off on her way.

While driving, she pulled out the two cell phones in her blazer pockets and tossed them lightly over to the passenger seat beside her. When she got home and had parked her car in the driveway, she couldn't seem to move herself from where she sat. She was rubbing her hands tentatively, recalling what had just happened. It all seemed like a dream…but it wasn't. Something actually happened to her today. She had just met Mr. Jack Frost, and as far as she was concerned, from what she knew, he was…good… He was a good person. Why _couldn't _he have been the baseball star at her school? He would've been so much better than…ugh…_Hans. _

Elsa sighed, looking down at her hands. Well, this was probably a once in a lifetime moment. And despite what just happened completely chilling her to the bones to go over to DreamWorks High alone and go through what she just experienced—getting attacked and meeting Jack—she wouldn't change anything about it. She was glad she went. She finally knew what kind of person Jack was. Well, at least what kind of person he was as a DreamWorks High student. Maybe not so much as a person in real life, but this was the closest she'd probably get, so that didn't matter.

It was time for her to shut down her curiosity on him. He was a closed case. She finally knew enough about him to make her stop wondering about him and awkwardly stare at him all the time whenever she spotted him. It was, as strange as this sounded, time for her to say…goodbye to him…goodbye to his name. After all, to get rid of a memory, she's heard that you needed to completely delete the very core of it—the place where everything started. And that's just what she was doing—she was finding the very heart of it—where it all began. And for her, it began with his name.

* * *

**Thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews! I really appreciate all of them.**

**I really wished I could've updated something during the weekdays, but I was just way too busy this past week. But this upcoming week I plan on, hopefully, doing a double update. I hope. :)**

**Thanks so much for reading! Don't worry, things will get better. ;D**


	11. Surprise, Surprise

Today was the day—it was finally Saturday, meaning it was finally the day DreamWorks High would have their Winter Ball. Everyone that attended DreamWorks High had been looking forward to this day, especially Jack. He never showed it on the outside, but he always was excited and looked forward to the Winter Ball. In fact, this dance was by far probably his favorite. And something in his gut-feeling told him that something big was going to happen. That's all he knew. A small part of him told him that what would happen, however, would be something bad. He normally didn't go back on his gut-feelings, but just this once, he didn't want to trust and believe in what he was feeling. After all, what could go wrong at the Winter Ball?

Although despite him "convincing" himself that nothing bad would happen tonight, he knew something was going to happen. His gut-feeling was practically a sixth sense to him. True, he was no fortune teller, but he could sense things. Like yesterday how Disney's baseball team ambushed him and his friends—as soon as Kristoff got hit, he knew to get his guard on and be prepared, even though he wasn't even quite sure what to be prepped for…although, he did have a fairly good idea.

"Jack!" North suddenly bursted into Jack's bedroom. "Why are Hiccup and Kristoff dressed so fanc—whoa!" North's eyes widened. "Jack!" he gasped, blinking.

Jack turned from his window, smirking knowingly at North. He was dressed in fine black dress clothing, and hanging down from his neck was a slim, neat-looking tie—which this wasn't a normal thing for North to see, ever. His uncle was aware of the school dances and he always encouraged Jack to go, and he even liked to hear the inside scoop on who Jack was asking and so forth, but he never quite remembered the dates for these dances. So whenever he caught Jack heading out the door looking finely dressed for a reason he had no clue of, he would always get surprised and look at him with wonder.

"It's the Winter Ball tonight," Jack chuckled, pushing his slightly rolled sleeves up his arm. He then glanced to North, raising his eyebrows. "Surprise…"

It took a moment, but North eventually broke his shocked look and a wide grin came to his face. "Oh! Is that what it is?" He boomed out a laugh. "Ah—I knew that! Well, more or less, I did know about this dance…" He began to rub the back of his neck with his big hands.

"Oh, I'm sure you did," Jack nonchalantly spoke, heading over to his desk, grabbing his black dress coat that hung off of the white chair in front of it. He then headed over towards the door, but stopped, for North was standing directly in the doorway. He cleared his throat. "Um, North?"

His uncle snapped his head up from looking down at the ground sheepishly, blinking as he replied: "Yes?"

"Do you mind…?" He tilted his head to the side, motioning for North to move.

"Oh! My apologies! Yes! Let me get out of your way!" North ushered himself back out into the hallway, his large broad shoulders bumping against the doorframe in the process. "How are you supposed to get anywhere when I'm in the way?" he rambled under his breath. He then bumped into a photo frame that hung on the wall behind him, the picture in the frame a close-up image of a snowflake (personally Jack's favorite image out of the rest of the pictures that hung in the house), and he abruptly turned around, his hands out and ready. When the picture stopped swaying threateningly, he heaved out a sigh of relief. "Oh, my, the struggles of being me!" he exclaimed. "Me and my big—"

Jack stepped out of his room, patting his hand on North's shoulder as he passed him by. "Hey, that's just how you're built. Plus you're quite fortunate—I mean you're how old and you still look good and fairly in shape? When you put things into perspective, most father figures have a bit of a…" He paused, pursing his lips. "Let's just say that most father figures aren't as fit as they used to be and have a bit of an overlapping…stomach…or they just struggle with their TV and sleeping habits…or for some, they're just naturally slim and lanky—at least you have something a little more when it comes to being just skin and bones." He looked at North, not seeing that much of a difference in his facial expression. He shook his head, dropping his gaze to the floor. He wasn't exactly making his point very effective, now was he?

"Well don't worry about me, Jack—what you've said was plenty—now go! Go have fun!" North grabbed Jack's shoulders and shooed him off. "And don't get into any trouble! No funny business, Jack!" he called out as Jack began heading down the stairs.

Jack simply rolled his eyes, swinging his dress coat over his right shoulder. Funny business? Who did North take him for? Sure, he messed around, but he had his limits. When he approached the bottom of the stairs, he found Kristoff and Hiccup brushing down their suits, trying to compose themselves as best as they could. The moment they noticed him, they stood up straight and grinned.

"Took you long enough," Kristoff mocked, a small smile present on his face.

"Hey, who was the one that took forever to get out the door this morning for the breakfast date we planned with the girls?" Jack shot, recalling the incident this morning.

This morning they simply just took their dance dates out for breakfast. They chose to have the date in the early morning hours just so their dates didn't have to walk around in their fancy gowns they mostly likely would've been dressed in and most likely bought two months ahead of time. This year they actually considered the fact that these girls they asked normally took ages just to get ready for any type of dance in particular, whether it was casual dress or not. After overhearing a few conversations, they took the time to calculate the information they knew and figured out that these girls began to get ready at around 1:00 P.M. for these dances. Frankly they didn't want to stand out too much while they were on their ordinary, average date, so they simply just chose to do a time that made it seem most unlikely for these girls to be dressed all fancy.

"Hey," Kristoff began defensively, "it was—"

"Sven?" Hiccup finished, folding his arms. "You know, you use that excuse every time…"

"Well, maybe if you had a dog like mine and grew up with it since the day you were practically born," Kristoff taunted with a heightened pride, "you'd understand."

"Hey!—now you made a big mistake crossing the line—Toothless is—"

Jack sighed, stepping between his two friends and shoved them away from each other. "Can you two _please_ leave your precious dogs out of this and let's just go already?"

He's already heard plenty over the years of the two arguing over their _dogs_. They've argued over size, smarts, breed—pretty much they've covered just about every possible thing to argue about between their dogs—they even once argued over the colors their dogs were, trying to tell each other that their dog's color symbolized something greater than the other! Honestly, there wasn't too much to go off of if the colors were brown and black… A numerous amount of times, Kristoff and Hiccup has asked Jack to choose between whether or not Sven, the oh-so magnificent Leonberger, was better, compared to Toothless, the even more so amazing Black Labrador, was better. He really didn't care—they were both good dogs. And despite the fact that he's told them that, they obviously didn't believe him because they still continued on with their defying and asking over and over again if he had changed his mind and come to an actual conclusion.

"You two really need to just…" Jack gritted his teeth and exhaled deeply. What was the use? Telling them to just drop it was pointless—he should know this better than anyone else.

Kristoff and Hiccup didn't stop arguing until Miranda Cali, Kristoff's date, joined them on their drive to pick up the other girls. And eventually when Courtney Malory and Taylee Anderson were added to the group on their drive to the Winter Ball, and Jack's car was a little more than full, the volume inside the black Highlander sounded like there was more than just six voices gleefully chatting and laughing. It was almost deafening, and Jack wondered for a split-second whether or not he'd lose part of his hearing. He was reassured his hearing was still the same as soon as he stepped outside of his car when they had finally arrived at their destination.

The Winter Ball was held at a large, beige building surrounded by an elegant garden, consisting of all types of flowers and plants that represented beauty and love. The building was sometimes used for special grand occasions such as wedding receptions—most of the time, though, its space was used to practice ballroom and many other styles of dancing. Every Tuesdays and Thursdays practices were held in the afternoon.

"Oh, my gosh! I am so excited! I bet the decorations are beautiful!" Courtney fantasized as she skipped a little.

"Yeah, I heard their plans for decorations overall in general were going to be great this year," Jack grinned, placing his hands in his pockets. He'd decided he'd leave his dress coat in the car, considering that it'd probably be fairly heated up inside the building.

As the group headed towards the doors, they could already hear the loud, pounding music along with the many voices meshing all together from inside. This only made them more eager to join the party that seemed to be going on in there—after all, they came here to have a good time. The moment they stepped foot inside, each of their dates towed them off to find their other friends. For Jack, because Courtney was on the cheer team, he soon found himself surrounded by a bunch of girls he recognized from the cheer team, along with a bunch of guys from the football team—he never liked to believe in stereotypes, but for some odd reason at his school it was always the football players that went for the cheerleaders. Except for Kristoff.

Kristoff was the only exception. From what Jack knew, Kristoff didn't want to be like the other football players and he "didn't want to follow the stereotypical way." He even vowed he'd never fall in love with a cheerleader. Jack and Hiccup agreed that just because he had said that, he'd fall in love with a girl that was a cheerleader. It was only fate.

By the time Courtney had gone off with some of her closer friends, Jack went into search mode. He felt a little disabled when he couldn't seem to find the one person he was looking for… All he could see were finely dressed boys and girls, either dancing or chatting in small groups. While he gazed around the dimly lit room that was colored in soft shades of all kinds of colors from the lighting, this gave him the opportunity to finally see the room itself, and see all the decorations; it all looked very well planned and designed out. Suddenly someone tapped him on his right shoulder. He turned, finding no one on his right, then turned to his left and before he knew it, he was getting hugged to death.

"I can't believe you fell for that!" Tooth exclaimed as she let go of him, jumping up a little out of excitement, but in the process she managed to trip over her dark fitted gown, stumbling off to the side a little. "Whoa—oh my—I hate these heels and this dress!—it's so long! Ugh! Jack! You're lucky to be a boy—you know that?!"

He laughed, happy to see her. "Hey, well the dress looks nice on you," he commented, taking notice of her petite figure dressed in the dark shaded gown; on the front of the dress small designs were embroidered, and on the back of her dress from the lower back and up was some more embroidered designs connected together. "And yeah, I know I'm lucky to be a boy," he smirked, folding his arms.

Tooth scoffed, too folding her arms. "Oh, look, and you're even being cocky about it—okay, you know what? I take it all back," she smiled playfully. "It's so much better being a girl. Being a girl—where do I start? You get to be all primped and prettied up without anyone questioning your sanity, and you get to wear _beautiful, gorgeous _clothing and accessories, and jewelry, and many more things…" She began to number off with her fingers, her turquoise painted nails glittering in the soft lighting of the room. "Oh and you get to do this—" she punched Jack in the shoulder— "without getting in trouble!" Her white smile widened and she gasped. "That's right! I can hit you as hard as I wish and not get into too much trouble!"

Jack grimaced as he smiled, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh but of course I could never really hit you seriously, Jack…" Tooth lightly laughed. "In fact, I can barely even harm a fly…even when I'm trying to…" She rambled on, grabbing the tips of her long, brown wavy hair, twirling it around her fingers. She then stopped, glancing up at him with bright green eyes. "So…where's little Ms. Malory?"

Clearing his throat, he pointed off in the direction he could see Courtney's black, fancy, strapless gothic ball gown swaying in the crowd with each movement she took. Her long blonde hair was up in a low bun, and she did look pretty…but not quite what Jack would say beautiful or at least something that would appeal to him and make him stop dead in his tracks just to stare like they always seem to do in the movies. Courtney was laughing with her friends, and every now and then her gaze would wander over to him. When she made eye contact with him, suddenly realizing he was looking at her, she smiled, waving lightly before focusing back to her friends, squealing a little.

"Wow, she's really in to you," Tooth breathed out lightly, glancing up at Jack for a few seconds before peering back at his date.

"What?" he blinked, still staring at Courtney. "No, no…she's not…" He shook his head, pursing his lips.

Tooth nodded her head in defiance. "Oh, she's totally into you! Jackson Overland! That girl has the biggest crush on you!" she exclaimed in a hush voice, slapping the back of her hand against his chest. "Not that you already have the whole school drooling over you—other than me, of course—but that girl really _likes_ you! Heh, well, I already knew this, actually because gossip and girl-talk goes spinning around like a carousel when you're in the girl's locker room with the whole cheer team…but still! Even if I wasn't on the cheer team—" She pursed her lips, shaking her head. "It's as obvious as identifying the moon against the stars at night! She's totally head-over-heels for you!"

"No, no, no," he continued shaking his head. "She's not…" He clenched his teeth. "…_in_to me. I mean—how can you even tell? She's not making it that obvious…"

"Seriously?" Tooth looked up at Jack in disbelief. "Jack—the girl is _giggling _each time she looks at you, and when you two made eye contact, she totally blushed—I mean, do you see that smile?" She grabbed his jaw and jerked him down to her eye level. "She _totally _likes you."

When she finally released her grip on him, he rubbed his jaw, managing a grim half-smile. "Yeah. I guess she may be…a little _in _to me." He rolled his eyes. Well, at least he knew Courtney liked him; that meant dating her was a good go…but he wasn't sure if he wanted to actually date her anymore. Which this was the main reason he asked her to the Winter Ball: to see if he really liked her enough and wanted to date her.

"Whatever, Jack—I know you know you practically hold the reigns to every girl's heart here," she sighed dramatically, a small smile edging onto her tinted pink lips. "Just try not to be _too _oblivious about it," she shoved him lightly.

"Ha, yeah…right." He tousled his silver-white hair.

There was a moment of silence between the two before Tooth eventually spoke up. "Well, she looks pretty, Jack." Tooth stared up at him with a shrug.

"Yup, she is," Jack sighed. "But," he turned casually towards Tooth, "we all know you look absolutely stunning and probably is the best looking girl here."

"Aww, Jack—you flatter me too much!—but you shouldn't say that! Especially when your date is about twelve or so feet away from you! Plus we all know I'm not _that _gorgeous looking," she laughed, turning to face him.

He cocked an eyebrow, smugly grinning at her. "Hey, I quote in your own words, Toothiana: 'Just try not to be _too _oblivious about it,' alright? We both know," he began mockingly, "that you—"

"Hey!" Tooth lightly shoved him in the chest as he merely just chuckled. "Don't you dare use my own words against me, Jackson!" she laughed.

Their laughing began to fade, and they just stared at each other with knowing looks. This was why Jack loved Tooth—he loved her because he knew he could love her and still be best friends with her without getting physically intimate with one another. He loved her and knew their relationship would always remain as the brotherly-sisterly type of love—which was just how he viewed them together. And that was the beauty he found in the meaning of friendship: it meant you could still love and care for someone as much as you wished for, and not get called out for mistakenly being in the actual, for eternity, magical kind of love—the kind of love that was meant to forever pour out of your heart nonstop with passion, affection, and lust.

They broke their eyes away from each other when they heard screaming reach their ears. Jack snapped his head towards the loud shrieks, and the murmurs that eventually evolved into shouting plagued throughout the room like the Black Death.

"Jack, what's going on?" Tooth clung onto his arm, slightly hiding behind him. It was fairly easy for her to disappear behind his figure, for she was barely as tall as his shoulders and naturally was small

Jack held his hand up, signaling for her to stay quiet. Holding still, his eyes scanned the large room of people, noticing that the extravagant dressed boys and girls around him began to scramble around, swarming like a thousand bees getting disturbed from their giant beehive. What exactly _was _going on? He couldn't seem to spot the problem—but suddenly his eyes hardened and he squinted through the moving bodies. _There was a figure dressed in black who had a hockey mask on… _

As he watched this masked figure who was looking around, he clenched his jaw and stiffened as soon as this unidentified figure seemed to stop its gaze on him. He clenched his hands, suddenly noticing this masked figure had a black satchel over his shoulder, and inside he could see something white. As soon as the masked figure moved his hand, he then noticed this figure was holding something white—_a snowball._

His heart skipped a beat and he turned, picking Tooth up and moving out of the way as briskly as he could.

"Jack what—!" Tooth had begun, but she got caught off guard and her voice hitched in her throat.

Suddenly a snowball came whizzing by in a straight line, much like a baseball thrown hard and fast, right where Jack had once stood. He eyed the snowball as it smashed into a boy dressed in a fine white suit that had been trying to get his date through the crowd and ruckus. He gently set Tooth down, making sure he didn't set her down on the pool of red liquid, that looked too much like blood, from the punch bowl that had tipped over from its table somehow getting knocked over; the cups and utensils that had been on the table were spread out on the floor as well. Turning around, spotting the attacker, he then grabbed the silver platter, with a few delicacies still, from off the refreshment table that still stood upright, and as soon as he saw the attacker's arm raise back, and when the timing was right, he swung the platter, the snowball that had been thrown at him smashing into a thousand pieces, almost as if it were glass.

The moment his view of the attacker got blocked by the many people still running around like this was some zombie apocalypse, Jack turned to Tooth. She was gaping and fear filled her eyes while her face just looked alarmed. He quickly grabbed her shoulders securely, bringing her back into focus.

"Tooth, stay close to the wall until you find the nearest exit," he told her.

"Wait, but what about you—?" she asked with wide eyes, as she began to take off her black heels.

"I'll be fine—after all, this is my game," he smugly grinned at her, releasing her shoulders as she gathered the bottom of her gown up and nodded her head, smiling weakly at him, shaking her head knowing all too well, before he sent her off.

He watched her until she disappeared. Sucking in a deep breath, he then turned around, taking a quick scan of the room before taking off, pushing his way through the crowd. He needed to find his team.

Jack's eyes flashed from face to face as he pushed through the swarming crowd. He couldn't believe how many people there still were! Shouldn't they have all mostly been out the door by now?—but then again, this was practically his whole school that was here and they were all panicking, so what did he expect? He heaved out a sigh as he continued to squeeze his way through the many people. The least his fellow classmates could do was _at_ _least_ make room for him instead of blindly, forcefully tread their way to the nearest escape, making his life that much harder!—but again, what did he expect? No one here knew what was going on except for him and possibly Hiccup and Kristoff, and possibly his team—the baseball team. His mood lifted as soon as he found one of the many faces he was looking for.

"Sandy!" he called out. He grabbed hold of Sandy's shoulder, causing him to slightly jump. "Sandy, I need you to gather the rest of the team and tell them to meet me near—" he paused, glancing around; he hadn't thought this far into the plan, "over there!" he pointed. "In that far right corner where the lights are flickering—this is baseball business," he quickly explained, and Sandy nodded his head, disappearing through the crowd. Jack blinked. That was a lot easier than he expected—he thought for sure there'd be an infinite amount of questions pouring right out of Sandy's mouth like a nonstop flowing waterfall—but then again, this was Sandy. He rarely ever questioned against things unless he felt the need to.

Jack pursed his lips, rolling his shoulders and neck, feeling a lot more eased. "One down…thirteen more to go," he muttered, resuming with his pushing and shoving.

It wasn't long until he found Kristoff and Hiccup hiding behind a knocked over table.

"Hiccup, what's going on?" Kristoff had asked urgently.

"I wish I knew!" Hiccup replied, slightly peeking over the top of their shield before quickly ducking behind it, a snowball smashing into the wall directly across from him. He then flailed his arms up. "Gah! First we get ambushed, and now our Winter Ball is getting attacked—!"

"Hey guys!" Jack suddenly exclaimed, slipping down beside Hiccup.

"Ah!" both Kristoff and Hiccup jumped, sighing deeply as soon as they realized who it was.

"Jack!" Hiccup exclaimed. "We've been wondering where you've been!"

"Right back atcha!" Jack grinned, repositioning himself so he was on his knees and crouching.

"Whoa, wait," Hiccup eyed the silver platter Jack held in his hands. "What are you doing with…_that?_"

Jack looked down, opening his mouth to speak, but Kristoff cut in, sharply saying, "I hate to burst this small little reunion—but can you please explain to us what's going on _first_, before you go into depth with that platter?!"

Jack rolled his eyes, getting ready to stand. "Yes, I will, but I need you guys to follow me and I'll explain along the way—okay?"

Hiccup and Kristoff looked to each other, nodding their heads. Jack grinned, peeking over the edge of the table before ducking quickly. As he stared at the ground, lost in thought, he then took notice of the food and decorations scattered on the ground and pursed his lips. Slightly nodding his head, he looked to his two friends. "Alright, let's move." He then grabbed a light blue candle that had been used for decoration, and stood up, beckoning for Hiccup and Kristoff to follow. The two followed his lead and picked up whatever they could, Hiccup grabbing a decent looking cupcake while Kristoff grabbed the other cylinder, light blue candle that was used for decoration.

As Jack edged his way to the side of the wall, keeping a lookout for any hockey masked figure, he began to explain: "We're being attacked by Disney's baseball team…"

"Aww—what? Again?!" Hiccup whined, suddenly catching a hockey masked figure spotting them and getting ready to throw a snowball. "Oh, my gosh—!" he panicked, pushing Jack forward and stepping back, a snowball smashing into the wall a few inches away in front of him just as he did so.

Jack turned around, staring at the wall where small, but visible, pieces of snow stuck, sliding down in jagged lines like a slithering snake. Pursing his lips as he nodded his head, he looked to Hiccup. "Thanks—now let's hurry—!"

"Wait—so how are you so sure it's Disney's baseball team? They already ambushed us yesterday—" Kristoff began.

"I'm sure because I saw Hans!" Jack stated, suddenly spotting the corner of the room. He grinned when he could see a few familiar faces and a couple of tables on their sides. _Well, this certainly will be one heck of a night,_ he thought, his excitement overthrowing his frustration and anger at the thought.

"Oh, well, that settles everything," Hiccup rolled his eyes, glancing back at Kristoff who merely grimaced.

Jack just nodded his head, picking up his pace. He figured it was Disney's baseball team the moment that snowball had glided in a straight line like an arrow and hit that one guy dressed in white. But that wasn't what confirmed his guesses—it was the moment he caught a glimpse of Hans. It was all luck when he caught the moment, too. He caught sight of Hans when he was with Tooth, right before his view got blocked. He was able to catch a small clip of someone accidently hitting Hans in the hockey mask, which then led to him taking off his mask, revealing his true identity. And even though the time was short, Jack saw enough.

"Is that the…?" Kristoff began.

"Yup," Jack confirmed, as soon as they arrived at the rendezvous point and hid behind the tables.

After doing a quick headcount, Jack grinned. The whole baseball team was here. This was all just too good. "Alright, men," he spoke up, gathering their attention, "as you all probably now know, it's our friendly neighbor Disney High's baseball team that has fantastically invited themselves over to our Winter Ball," Jack sarcastically grinned. "And as we all have most likely learned since our grade school years, we _welcome _our friends, right? So let's go greet them and give them a thank you present to head out the door with for trashing our school dance, alright?" All of the guys grinned. "Great!—now remember to not seriously injure anybody, and—"

He got cut off by Pitch, who was standing in the shadows of the corner of the building. "How exactly do you expect us to fight back?" Pitch retorted, his shadow looming across the wall.

Jack gritted his teeth. He nearly forgot Pitch was a part of the baseball team… He shoved his irritation that had begun to creep up his spine away, and simply flashed a smug grin at Pitch. "Oh, I'm sure we'll all manage—there's always a way out, even if it seems impossible. Now, let's play ball, men." With that said, Jack arose, lightly tossing up the light blue candle he held in his right hand a couple of times before he took his aim and threw.

Almost as if gunfire had been shot signaling for the racers to start, the rest of the baseball team fanned out and put their "thank you" present into action. Jack's stern face lightened as he watched the victim of his thrown candle arch his back at the sudden contact. Quickly Jack jumped over the table, swinging the platter he still held at an incoming snowball.

"Kristoff!" he called out to the blonde who was readying his aim to throw the candle he had grabbed earlier. "Do you think you can tackle that guy?"

Kristoff loosened his posture, fixing his gaze on one of the few masked figures throughout the room—the majority of Disney's baseball team now no longer wore their masks, for there was no use of them now, now that their cover had been blown and their identities were known. By now DreamWorks High's students were finally clearing out of the room; only a few unfortunate stragglers got trapped behind and were trying to defend themselves from the multiple snowballs thrown at them and their dates.

"On it," Kristoff replied, tossing his ammo over to Jack before he broke out into a run. When the targeted masked figure noticed the blonde running at him like he was the red flag and him the bull, he began to turn around and run. But he quickly found himself coming face to face with a wall and before he could change directions, Kristoff had his hands held behind his back and was pushing him up against the wall. "Going so soon?" Kristoff taunted.

Jack quickly threw Kristoff's candle before he jogged up to them, slapping Kristoff on the back. "Nice," he then turned to the masked figure, "and time to reveal who you are…" He then paused. "Who do you think it is?" he challenged.

"Hmm—I'm betting it's…Peter…" Kristoff guessed.

"You think it's Peter? I think it's Peter, too." He took off the hockey mask. Immediately he turned to Kristoff and they high-fived.

"We are so good," Kristoff boasted.

Jack nodded his head, pursing his lips as he fixed his gaze back on their captive, Peter. He then remembered something, and instantly dropped his gaze down, finding a black satchel over Peter's shoulders. Inside he found two snowballs left. Sighing, he took the two snowballs. At least two was better than one. Although he would've preferred it if there was just a little more left in the bag. Kristoff then released Peter, who quickly scrambled off.

Off in the distance, Jack then spotted Hans. Sucking in a deep breath, he then took his stance. Readying his aim, his jaw tightened and he began to throw, only to pause at the sound of someone tsking. He released his posture, looking to the side only to find Flynn shaking his head.

"Now I wouldn't do that if I were you, Jacky-boy…" Flynn then began to ready-set-fire his own snowball he held, but something suddenly came and smashed into his face, smearing an ice blue frosting across his cheek. Flynn froze, slowly bringing his hand to his face, a little hesitant to touch his cheek. By the time he finally touched his cheek and brought his hand into view, he rubbed his fingers together with a confused expression overwhelming his face. Quickly he glanced to the ground, finding a ruined vanilla cupcake, and then glanced to the direction the cupcake had come from. He then looked back at Jack, who simply just stared dumbfounded at him.

In the blink of an eye, Flynn saluted sheepishly, taking off, calling out to Hans. Jack just blinked.

"Oh my! Did you see that?! That was _amazing!_" Hiccup cheered, running up beside Jack. "Please tell me you at least saw _that!"_

Jack snapped out of his daze, and looked to Hiccup smugly. "A cupcake?" he questioned.

"Oh I know, right?! Who knew they could be used more than just satisfying the stomach!"

Jack stared at him, slowly beginning to shake his head. Rolling his eyes, he suddenly caught sight of Disney's baseball team all running towards the exit. His grip on the snowballs tightened, and he quickly threw them, aiming the last one at Hans who was the last on out the door. It felt almost as if things had gone in slow motion when he threw the snowball. As Hans ran out the door, he glanced back a devious grin to Jack before the door suddenly shut and the snowball smashed into it, everything zooming back up to pace. _Darn. _He was so _close…_ Just a little too late.

He tousled his hair, heaving out a sigh as he took a quick evaluation of the room as soon as Hiccup muttered something about how wrecked this place look. And he was right. It was a complete mess. Jack heaved out a sigh, pushing his sleeves up his arm. Crossing his arms, wrapping his right hand around his mouth, he could only stare at the mess. Some dance this turned out to be. The only thing that made him a little happy was the thrill and excitement of it all—but still. Their dance had been ruined.

Soon the baseball team, plus Kristoff, all slowly gathered up to where Jack stood. Everyone was muttering crude comments on how this night was a bust and how badly it sucked that their Winter Ball had to get ruined—the seniors were especially mad. Even Pitch seemed thrown off, even though he didn't say anything at all and kept the silence as his voice.

As Jack listened to everyone's complaints mixed in with a few compliments of how good of a throw that cup of water had been thrown, or whatever they were praising on, he suddenly cocked his head a little, a small smug grin coming to his face. An idea was growing in his mind. The Winter Ball wasn't just a dance their school specially did—all of the schools in the area did it. And that's when the idea in his mind began to grow into full bloom. "Guys, I have an idea…"

After he had proposed his idea, the whole baseball team, Kristoff included, agreed instantly and the idea formed into a plan they were all eager to set into action. Even Pitch seemed satisfied with the idea, for his dark complexion appeared as if he was slightly smiling.

Granted Jack's idea wasn't the smartest idea, and he knew it was a bit rash…but it only made things even between Disney and DreamWorks High. It was only fair. And that's what made him not feel so bad for being excited to set this plan into action when the time finally, eventually came around.

* * *

**I hope my attempts at trying to make scenes wickedly awesome aren't being too much of a disgrace to what you would call "exciting." ;D**

**Thank you so much for all of the lovely reviews! And thank you so much for reading!**

**I'll update this soon! Like, Wednesday soon! And if not that, well...yeah, no, I'm planning Wednesday. ;D**


	12. Surviving the First Half of the Day

Elsa pursed her lips, tightening her crossed arms as she stared at the crowding group around the entire baseball team, who were smack right in the middle of the school hallway a little ways away from where she stood—which was actually quite inconvenient for her because her locker was in that area and she could see it was completely blocked off. People were cheering crazily, even though she knew some had no clue as to what they were even cheering for.

Suddenly someone rudely bumped into her harshly from behind. She stumbled away, grimacing at the person who did so. Sucking in a deep breath, she looked around timidly. What was going on, exactly? And that's when it crossed her mind—_What if they were cheering about that one incident on Friday?_

No one saw her, right? Well of course not because, well…someone would've already confronted her about it, right? She was safe, right? Right. So there was nothing to worry about—she was worrying over nothing.

"I heard they got Jack Frost real good…" She heard a guy, who had his arm wrapped around the shoulder of some girl, say as he walked by, towards the swarming crowd.

Her jaw slightly loosened, dropping down a little. So this was about Friday, then…? Elsa bit her bottom lip nervously, quickly glancing over to the growing crowd before heading off on her way. As she turned a corner, she then heard her name echo throughout the crowd. Her heart skipped a beat and she glanced behind her for only a second before she began to take off, walking as fast as she possibly could without seeming out of the ordinary. Oh but she probably already looked strange enough, didn't she?

"Elsa!" that same echo came bouncing back to her ears, except a thousand times heightened and louder.

A hand suddenly grabbed hold of Elsa's left shoulder, and she quickly turned, only to find Rapunzel's smiling face greeting her. She exhaled deeply in relief, her heart slowing down immensely.

"Whoa, are you okay? You look like you just—" Rapunzel shook her head. "It doesn't matter—but have you heard?!" She gleefully jumped, her bright green eyes sparkling.

"Uh, heard what, exactly?" Elsa tensely laughed, forcing it out as she tried to keep her facial expression under control.

Rapunzel gaped widely at Elsa, looking at her with wide eyes. "You don't know?" she gasped loudly, a wide grin spreading across her face. "You seriously haven't heard?!"

Elsa clenched her teeth, barely managing a smile as she slowly shook her head no. She had come to a conclusion that since Rapunzel wasn't freaking over her being in any sort of incident, then maybe no one from the baseball team had seen her Friday like she had been agonizing over for the past couple days, and that she may as well hear the story that Hans and his teammates had been telling the whole school…

"Oh my—Elsa! You haven't—oh my!" Rapunzel looked at Elsa in amazement, her mouth hanging wide open. "Well, I'm telling you right now, Missy! You seriously—?! Okay, well," she quickly brushed her frisky brown hair behind her ears. "Wow, well—alright, so…Eugene and the rest of the baseball team…"

Elsa nodded her head, eager to hear what she had to say, even though she was quite positive she already knew what the big excitement was about.

"…they…"

She nodded her head some more, getting a little too anxious.

"…totally crashed DreamWorks High's Winter Ball."

Elsa opened her mouth, but paused, blinking in shock. Wait…what? Did she hear right?

"Yeah, I know, right?" Rapunzel shook her head in amazement.

"Wait, no—" Elsa shook her head "—they attacked and ambushed some of DreamWorks' baseball players, didn't they?"

Rapunzel gasped with a sly smile. "So you do know a little bit about it!" she exclaimed. "And yeah, they did do that—but that was Friday. Saturday was when DreamWorks had their Winter Ball. That's when they really attacked."

"Wait, but—" She just couldn't wrap her mind around it. "What—_why _did they attack on Friday as well if they already had plans to attack Saturday? Isn't one attack good enough?"

"Oh, well, that wasn't intentional—they originally went to DreamWorks High to figure out the location of their dance—but when opportunity came strolling right out the doors, they couldn't resist and they had to take that moment. So while Hans, I think, went inside the building to figure out the location, the rest of the baseball team that had come along as backup waged a snowball fight," Rapunzel stated. "I heard it was only Jack Frost, Hiccup Haddock, and Kristoff Bjorgman, who they attacked. And I'm sure you know, but Hans and Jack are…" She paused, thinking of the right way to put it. "Let's just say they really hate each other and would probably break each other's arms if they could," she grinned brightly.

Elsa blinked. "Is that really…what they were doing there at DreamWorks High…?" she asked, timidly showing her disbelief. This was a joke. So she originally would've been perfectly fine if Hans hadn't have stupidly come up with the idea of ruining DreamWorks' Winter Ball? And what kind of fool would think to do such a thing to someone else's night out? These dances were meant for the fun of it—not for humiliation and absolute disaster.

"Yeah—I heard there was a girl they attacked as well—I kind of don't like the fact that they targeted her…she wasn't a part of Jack and his friends or this whole baseball business…is it bad that I feel bad for someone who's our arch enemy? I mean, I actually feel a little bad for DreamWorks High overall because…well…" Rapunzel looked down to her hands she began to intertwine with each other. "I honestly would be _so_ mad if someone ruined our Winter Ball…"

Elsa pursed her lips. "There was a girl?" she blankly asked. "Does anyone know who she is?" she asked as she brought her thumb up to her lips and began to lightly nibble on her thumbnail.

Shaking her head, Rapunzel shrugged. "No one knows who she is. Why? Do you know something about her?"

Caught off guard, Elsa abruptly shook her head. "N-no," she stuttered. "I—no…I don't know anything about her," she lied, gritting her teeth. She couldn't believe she was lying. What was the big deal? It was just Rapunzel—she was probably her closest friend. Why didn't she trust her enough? _There's clearly something wrong with you, _a voice echoed in her head. _Or maybe it's her…_ She clenched her hands. _Not now, _she commanded against her thoughts.

"Oh—well there goes the bell," Rapunzel sighed.

"What? It rung?" Elsa's eyes widened.

"Yeah—it rung a while ago—that was actually the one minute bell," Rapunzel sighed, swinging her arms to the side. "Well! Today's not the day we have first period together, so…see you at lunch?" she smiled widely, waving before she disappeared into the crowd.

Elsa simply blinked, weakly waving back. Her face was completely emotionless. She had one minute. Well, a little less than one minute, now. It took a moment before her panic finally settled in. _She had less than a minute. _She gasped, quickly moving her way through the hall and around the corner. As she stared down the hallway, she grimaced, seeing that her locker was still blocked. A few people had left from the swarming crowd surrounding their baseball team, but that didn't make too big of a difference. In fact, there practically was no difference at all.

"Oh, c'mon," she huffed under her breath, debating whether or not getting her textbook was that important. Biting her lower lip, she groaned and turned on her heels, booking it to her current class period. Maybe she'd be lucky and today in class they wouldn't require the usage of that textbook…? She shook her head. She never was that lucky.

.

Ever since she heard the news about DreamWorks high, she couldn't stop thinking about it—she couldn't stop thinking about the incident that supposedly went down Saturday night. And even when she did manage to stop herself from thinking about it, that didn't make any difference. It was impossible for her to not think about it, for everyone in the school knew the story now, and no one would keep their mouths shut up about it. She felt like she was being haunted. She was practically drowning in everyone's quiet giggles and whispering voices that overlapped each other in each class she sat in.

First period was okay at first. It was fine, that is, until she began to get irritated each time she managed to hear a few conversations about the Winter Ball disaster lingering over to her ears like an annoying fly buzzing around her head. She'd hear these conversations practically about every five minutes.

Second period was just as bad as her first period. The only difference was the amount of time it'd be until someone brought up another obnoxious praise about what Hans did. Sadly in this class period, the majority of students were girls. So the time lessened and it became every four minutes when she'd hear someone spark up a conversation about Saturday night. And to top this off with a cherry, Hans' so-called "rugged charms" would get mentioned as well.

Third period, however, was surprisingly the worst. Despite the teacher of her third class period actually enforcing everyone to remain silent as he taught the lesson, her thoughts of the mishap spoke loudly to her like it were speaking through a microphone. Her thoughts mostly consisted of her annoyance at Hans. Seriously, though! It would've been a grab-and-go situation for her, instead the whole ready-set-run-for-your-life situation she was forced into!

When lunch came around, she could barely stand it in the cafeteria and hallways. She presumed to eating her lunch outside in her car, regardless to Rapunzel's and Anna's pleads.

Fourth period was as bad as second period. She tried to distract herself by drawing snowflake doodles on her light blue notebook. But that didn't keep her ears locked up. It annoyed her so badly how everyone was taking Hans' treacherous act and turning it into something heroic—which was everything it wasn't. To say she was in misery was a bit of an understatement.

Unlike practically everyone else, she really thought that what their baseball team did was absolutely horrible. It was so rude! It was so not a joke!—yet everybody kept smiling like their lips were stitched to stay that way forever. Now she wished she never even bothered asking Rapunzel about what the big ruckus was this morning… But then again, she would've found out about it sooner or later. It's not like everyone was trying to hide their inner joy and ultimate feel of success from what _Hans _and the rest of the stupid baseball team managed to succeed in doing.

Elsa wasn't normally too into the idea of cursing people and hoping the worst for them…but this was an exception. She _really_ hoped Hans and the rest of the baseball team got in trouble. She actually hoped for them to get expelled, even, at one point during the moments she could barely grasp the silence for about five seconds before people's voices would overflow into her ears about the disaster. It unnerved her to know that she was surrounded by such a society. Was everyone always this cruel?

She bit her bottom lip, self-consciously rubbing her arms. Closing her eyes, she then reopened them to stare up at the clock. There was only three more minutes until the bell would ring. She sighed. "Finally," she mumbled under her breath, beginning to pack up her things. She then froze. Slowly she peered up, catching Flynn Rider's eyes staring at her. He didn't even bother to quickly look away like she had expected. He just stared at her like he were in some sort of trance because he clearly had to be under some spell—_the _Flynn Rider, staring at her?—now that was a mistake. He never gave the time of day to look at her or even _Rapunzel_—and he used to be fairly good friends with the brunette too.

In fact, Flynn and Rapunzel used to be best friends. They were best friends all throughout grade school and their friendship seemed as if it would last forever…like it would never break. But clearly looks can be deceiving because if that were true, then how come Flynn no longer wanted to be around Rapunzel? That was something Elsa just didn't get. What happened? Flynn used to be, actually, a fairly decent guy. In fact, he was so much more than that…which was why she never called him out specifically like she did for Hans. Flynn and Hans weren't equals. They were both extremely different. And not that Elsa didn't want Flynn to go out and make new friends…it's just—why did he have to give up his friendship with Rapunzel? She didn't care too much that he gave his friendship up with her because, well…she never had the kind of relationship Rapunzel had with him.

Elsa never understood why he had to suddenly break off all connections. One day everything was peachy fine, but then the next, everything just died like it had taken the bite out of the Evil Queen's poison apple. And from how things are now, there was nothing that could be done to save what was poisoned. What's now in a deep slumber is still stuck in its dark dreams.

Flynn for some odd reason felt that it was overrated to be friends with a girl like Rapunzel. Apparently he "needed to let go of the old stuff, and make space for the new things." It was time to "let it go and move on." To Elsa, his words that were ingrained into her memory were, to put things simple, a bunch of loaded crap. She still remembered how brave and strong Rapunzel was that first day they were freshman. As soon as Flynn left, sealing every word he had just said with the simple word of "goodbye," Rapunzel didn't even cry; she just smiled weakly saying that it was okay. She didn't cry until two years later, last year, when they were juniors and she had sprained her ankle from overworking herself in cheer practice.

Flynn had apparently asked one of the sophomore cheerleaders, who Rapunzel thought didn't deserve to be on the team because she wasn't a good asset and didn't even know how to tumble, unlike some of the other girls that were there at the try-outs, out on a date. Apparently this sophomore cheerleader was getting on her nerves, bragging about how _the _Flynn Rider asked _her _out, basically deadpanning to every girl on the cheer team that she was special and most likely the prettiest. Rapunzel vented this all to Elsa that night, confessing how she had never been so irritated in her entire life; they were having a sleepover since Rapunzel's parents would be out of town for business and she didn't like to be home alone.

Even though Rapunzel rarely ever showed it, Elsa knew her all too well. She knew that Rapunzel was still hurt. She knew that each time Rapunzel had to walk past or talk about Flynn like it was a normal thing to do, because any girl who didn't like to talk about Flynn and their absolute adoration for him clearly must be crazy and an outcast, she had a hard time barely managing a realistic smile and resisting the urge to walk away.

As Elsa continued to stare at Flynn like they were in some sort of staring contest, her view suddenly got blocked off by someone. She blinked, flashing her eyes up to see who had blocked her vision. "Can I help you…?" she asked, a hint of annoyance edging in her voice.

"Elsa, I know that you haven't been asked to the, uh, Winter Ball—"

"Are you asking me?" she questioned in disbelief, looking at the brown-haired boy, finely dressed in a white button up shirt that was tucked down into a pair of designer jeans.

"Oh, well you know, you can thank me later…but yes, I am as a matter of fact asking yo—"

"Edward," Elsa sighed, "what's the real reason? Didn't you ask Giselle?" She knew Edward and Giselle hit it off and have had a thing going on with each other ever since they sung together in their first play with one another. She already knew he asked Giselle a long time ago. So there _had _to be a factual reason rather than the ridiculous excuse he was using of him being a so-called "nice guy" and asking her to the Winter Ball because she hadn't been asked yet. It was, after all, kind of a big deal, if you never got asked.

"What? Uh, what are you talking about? Pfft, no…" He waved it off, slightly twitching his head.

Elsa cocked an eyebrow. "Well then, I don't see any reason for you to have the need to be asking two girls to the same dance…" She flashed a momentary smile before she pulled her gaze away from him, slipping her backpack on. The bell suddenly rang and she stood, but Edward pushed her back down, kneeling down in front of her. She stared at him with raised eyebrows.

He huffed, keeping his hands on her shoulder. "Look, as humiliating as it is, Giselle and I are no longer going to the Winter Ball together because, well…she didn't want to go anymore…with me…"

Elsa pursed her lips as she listened. She could smell the slight, faint aroma of expensive cologne coming off from him.

"Look." He shook his head, locking his desperate bright blues eyes with hers. "Will you go to the dance with me or not? I already have ordered a pricey corsage for this coming Saturday, and I don't want it to go to waste, and I can't cancel the order, and my stepmother wouldn't be too happy if the money I spent went to waste—will you please just say yes?" he asked exasperatedly.

She would've said no, but the look in his eyes made the wrong word spill out of her mouth: "Yes." She barely recognized it was her own voice when she spoke. As soon as he grinned and released her from his grip, she then realized the mistake she had just made. It felt as if she had just signed a contract in black ink. There were no take-backs now.

"Oh!—you _glorious_ human-being! Thank you, Elsa! Thank you! Thank you! _Thank you!" _he thanked her as she stood up.

Elsa tried to put on her best excited smile as she walked past him and headed towards the door. Immediately when her face passed out of his view, her smile dropped like it had been controlled and lifted by strings, just like a wooden puppet. _You should've said NO, _her mind echoed to her. She sighed. She really _should've_ said no, shouldn't she have? Well it was too late now…what more did she expect of herself to do?—turn around and tell Edward, "April fools! Just kidding! Jokes on you!"? No, she could never. Plus, really, in all honesty, despite her lack of will to show any excitement and her mind opposing her choice, she was factually excited and thrilled to go. And really who wouldn't?

She was a senior this year, so that meant it'd be her last year here at Disney High School, and that meant each dance this year would be her last. The Winter Ball was her favorite—how depressing would that be if she didn't get asked her last year to her favorite dance?

"Elsa—!" Edward called out to her.

She slightly turned and squealed. One second she was on the ground, and the next she was airborne. "Edward!" she gasped, more than just caught off guard. "Can you—can you please put me down?!" she stuttered as he spun her around, thanking her gleefully.

By the time he set her down, he had spun her around two times. Elsa merely staggered a little, feeling just a tad bit violated. Edward merely flashed his pearly-white teeth at her.

"Thank you! You are a lifesaver!" he praised once more.

She laughed halfheartedly, trying not to seem too uncomfortable with what he just did, for it was really only an action out of pure joy. At least the teacher had left the classroom when the bell rung. "Whoo, uh, ha…umm, next time….a simple 'thank you' will do…" She pushed him slightly away, creating some space.

"Oh, uh, right… " He cleared his throat, straightening his posture. "Well, anyway, I'll pick you up at half past eight, Saturday night, and the corsage is white, just so you know (apparently girls are picky when it comes to matching)," he informed her as he walked backwards past her and towards the door.

Elsa just nodded her head. "Alright. Got it."

He nodded his head. "Good…great... I can't wait. Again, thank you, Elsa." He turned around.

As she watched him go, she bit her lower lip. "Edward," she called out, "wait…"

He turned. "Hm?"

"I'm…I'm sorry…about Giselle," she dropped her gaze, twiddling her thumbs, "but just know that…not very many people end up with their first love…"

Edward smiled weakly. "Yeah…? Well, thank you. I think you're the first person to say something like that to me," he tilted his head with a soft smirk. "Most people have just told me to get over her and find someone else. It's not that easy, you know?" He then nodded his head. "Ah, well, I should get going. See you around, Ms. Winters," he grinned, leaving.

Elsa sighed as she just stood there. Well…today didn't end as she had expected. Well, at least her _school_ day hadn't ended as she had expected. For the rest of the day in general, well… She was just going to do what she had been doing every day after school: practice her figure skating. She no longer was as sore, and she was improving. But only just a little bit.

She couldn't help but grin. She got asked to the Winter Ball…and even though the intentions weren't because the guy actually wanted to go with her…she still was happy. It was her favorite dance. Now if only she could get the hang of her ice skating… She sighed. What if she never went back to normal with her ice skating? What if her not being able to improve meant that her ice skating days were over? Her heart ached at this thought. _No…_ She loved ice skating. It was practically what kept her going. When she had no one to turn to, she would turn to ice skating. But now it seemed as if ice skating was keeping her locked out for some odd reason…she no longer did it for the fun and joy of it—her life was too consumed with trying to perfect and improve it. But what else was she supposed to do?

She no longer was at the same level she used to be. She's gotten worse, ever since that accident… Was it because of that accident that caused her to become so horrible? Six months was a long time…but two months of those six she took the time off to heal. Factually she has had four months to practice her ice skating. But still…four months was long, as well. She's had time. She just broke her ankle…that's all that happened. What was holding her back?

Elsa inhaled deeply, letting her breath all out in one big huff, before she headed out the door. _Standing here all day isn't going to get you anywhere_, her mind scolded. As she walked out the door, someone grabbed her arm.

"Elsa…"

* * *

**Ooohh! Cliffhang - ha, yeah, no. That's not that big of a cliffhanger.**

**Anyways, I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but there is a realistic dress out there that I had in mind for what Tooth was wearing. And it's nothing extremely glamorous or anything, however I do love it because it has a sense of elegance to it; plus I loved the back and it had a hummingbird on it. If you want to see it, just type into Google search images: Cate Blanchett in Galliano.**

**Thanks so much for the reviews, favorites, follows! I appreciate it all! And thank you so much for reading!**

**My next update...probably Saturday. If not that, then Sunday. **


	13. A Classified Drive

Whipping her head over to the source of the voice, her heart dropped. What did _he _want? Why was he even talking to her? He never talked to her, let alone looked at her. His staring from earlier was already weird and abnormal enough—had he been possessed by some ghost or something? Oh but she didn't really believe in that paranormal activity that people always seemed to claim and talk about on the news and live TV shows…

"Elsa, I need to talk to you. Can we go somewhere private?"

She blinked at Flynn Rider speechlessly. Talk? He really wanted to talk? Maybe today was the day she'd start to believe in that paranormal-creepy-unbelievable-activity stuff… Her mouth gaped open slightly, but she didn't answer. She could barely control her thoughts, so how in the world was she supposed to control her voice? She shook her head, gathering her poise.

"You want to talk?" she asked in disbelief. This had to be some sort of joke. He was fooling with her. This was a trick. He was just going to do something humiliating to her, and then in the end he'd post some picture of whatever it was. She couldn't trust him.

He sighed, turning his gaze away as he muttered something about how this was happening a little different than he imagined.

"Excuse me?" Elsa tried to pull her arm out of his grip, ending with no avail. "Look, I don't know what you want, but I really need to get going—" she tried to yank her arm free once again, but his grip only tightened.

"What, so you can go practice your ice skating?" he taunted, bringing his face back to face hers. He was completely serious. There wasn't a trace of humor written across his face.

She clenched her teeth, pursing her lips. _How did he know? _she panicked inwardly. If he knew…who else knew? Has he told anyone?Were they going to rendezvous at her frozen lake and make fun of her? Did she need to find a new place? _No… _She couldn't just find a new place—that frozen lake was _her _spot. It was special. "Let _go_…!" she demanded firmly.

"Wrong answer, Elsa," he sighed, tugging her forcefully up beside him, releasing her arm and placing his grip on her right shoulder instead. She tensed up.

As he led her through the school, he grinned smugly at the few people they passed by, whereas she merely gave Flynn weird looks each time. What was he smiling about? Was he practicing his acting skills or something? What did he want with her? Again, her mind began to lose control and a thousand questions swarmed around her head like a tornado. She was freaking out, despite her collected demeanor. If she knew remembered how to move and direct her arms and legs, she would've jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and bolted it away from him. But sadly enough, she had completely forgotten how to do any of those things and continued to let him lead her to where he was guiding her.

It was as if he were the guide dog and she the blind person in desperate need of guidance and assistance. The only difference was the fact that she had perfect vision and he was (most-likely) the guide dog with wrong intentions. If this were an actual situation, he'd probably guide her right into the middle of some busy road and let her get hit by a zooming car, racing to beat the yellow light, before it turned red. By the time he led her out the school doors and into the chilly air, her mind began to tell her other horror situations he'd lead her into. He was going to wrap her up in giant, strong, heavy chains and then bury a hole, and bury her in the ground. As a result, she would freeze to death, despite her total comfort with the cold and snow. Getting buried by force of will and choosing to be out in the cold were two completely different things that had two completely different endings.

By the time he had led her to his black jeep and had told her get in, which she did so, was when she realized her surroundings. She blinked, almost as if she had been released from some hypnotizing trance. Gasping lightly, she snapped her head over in the driver's seat where he was now settling down in. As he began to pull his seatbelt on, she could only stare dumbstruck. He then put his keys into the ignition, starting up the car. "We're going on a little drive," he said as he turned his upper body to watch behind him as he backed out of his parking spot.

She could feel and hear the snow beneath his car's tires getting squashed and stamped down on. Pursing her lips, she hesitantly buckled her own seatbelt in, slowly settling her back against the leather seat. Was he kidnapping her? Well, considering the fact that she willingly went into his car without a threat forcing her in…he had every right and reason to be innocent…for now. Who knew what he planned on doing next.

When Flynn was done backing out and now was driving his way through the school's parking lot, Elsa managed to spot her car, her eyes lingering on it as they drove by, leaving it behind. She heaved out a sigh when she no longer could see it. _This probably would be the last time you see your car,_ she told herself. _You should kiss your car goodbye before it's too late. _She sucked in a deep breath.

Even though her thoughts were getting completely poisoned by that one, small, tiny piece inside her brain that claimed that Flynn was a bad guy now, deep down she knew everything would be okay and that he really did just want to simply talk. But her mind kept blocking that part that she really knew with a mask of the fact that he was going to harm her in some way, whether it was emotionally or physically.

The car ride through the busying streets started out silent, and Elsa felt strangely content. She didn't feel out of place or anything in his presence. It felt as if nothing ever changed…as if nothing _bad _ever ruined their relationship. She began to pull down her loose, white raglan tee with gray half sleeves, straightening it out below her seatbelt. When she looked up, there were no longer so many cars, and Flynn was now turning down a neighborhood; the houses all were ivory homes and fairly large piles of snow were piled up near the edges of the sidewalks.

After a few houses passed by, Flynn spoke up: "You know, I didn't mean to be so rude about it, when I brought up your ice skating. I'm sorry, if I came across a little…harsh…" He glanced over to her with candid eyes. "And for the record, I always thought how you did ice skating was cool," he gently smiled at her.

A smile twitched across her face in response, but her voice didn't play any part. She still wasn't sure what to think.

She heard him sigh heavily. "Elsa, look, I really am sorry. I really respect you and your ice skating—I think you're amazing, and considering how long it's been since I've seen you skate, I'm sure you're probably ready to go to the Olympics—and I know I haven't been too good of a friend to you all these years…" He paused, and she peered over at him with her eyes, keeping her neck stiff in place, holding her head still. "And I'm sorry for that too…" His voice lowered. "But I need to talk to you about a few things, and then I'll let you go. Capisce?"

It took her few moments, but she eventually replied. "I'll listen if you'll answer a few questions for me afterwards…alright?" She finally looked to him.

"Yes!" he glorified. "Anything! So you'll hear me out?" He glanced over at her.

"Yes—just keep your eyes on the road—you're going to get us in an accident," she snickered, rolling her eyes over to the houses that continued to pass by like a streaming tape.

"Ha, right," he sneered. He then took in a deep breath before beginning. "Okay, so…I'm just going to get straight to the point: I saw you Friday at DreamWorks High School."

Hearing this immediately caused a button on Elsa to set her into freeze mode. _What?_ She felt paralyzed. She couldn't even twitch a finger muscle.

"And I'm sure you had some sort of reason for being there—but Elsa, I'm warning you: be _careful. _If Hans and the other boys saw you, do you know what would happen? It'd be grade school and junior high _all _over again. Do you really want to go through that again? I really don't want to see you go through that again. Elsa, it's high school—things they'll do to you will be much more crude and there won't be very many people standing behind you. If it's Hans you'll be standing up against—then yes—you really won't have very many people who'll have your back. Your problems will definitely not reduce, in fact, they'd increase. And I know you don't like Hans very much—I can see it like you have an actual sign in bold neon lights saying: 'I hate Hans Westerguard'!" he exclaimed, laughing a little in amusement.

"But that's beside my point: please be careful. I really don't want to see you getting hurt—and if you aren't careful enough, and you do get hurt, I don't know if I'll be able to help you like I've done in the past. In the past, I wasn't stuck to the point to where I had to actually watch where I stepped…" He chuckled lightly to himself. "You know, a lot of things have changed. And along with these changes, I've noticed myself trying to adapt to every single bit of these changes…but you know, I've never really _truly _been able to completely familiarize myself with these so-called 'changes'… I guess that's just a part of life, though," he sighed, "isn't it?"

Elsa slowly nodded her head, still trying to translate his words. If she heard correctly, it sounded as if he were _concerned—_as if he still _cared. _Her face contorted itself._ Now that couldn't be right…maybe I interpreted wrong? _she grimaced. Three years…and now all of a sudden, out of the blue, he pulls the confetti trigger and practically says, "Just kidding, I've actually cared about you this whole time! Jokes on you! I really was just disguising myself with this brand new costume that fits me like my skin does!"? What was he expecting her action to be? Why now? Why did he suddenly care _now? _He should've shown he actually still knew she existed a long, long time ago. _Maybe he couldn't, did you ever think about that? How could you be so heartless—give the guy a chance, _a voice abruptly broke through her mind.

"Did you tell anyone it was me?" she asked quietly, looking over to him. She could read his face and voice to tell if he were lying.

"No, of course not," he replied, saying it as if that were the dumbest thing to ask. And maybe it was…but she just wanted to—no, she _needed _to make sure, he was telling the truth. He may have been a bit of a jerk to Rapunzel and her over the years…but that didn't mean she still didn't care about him. Rapunzel definitely didn't stop caring, which was probably part of the reason why she couldn't stop herself either.

Elsa could feel his eyes boring into her, and even though it wasn't even that long, he seemed to have lased a hole right through her within that short amount of time. She dropped her gaze down to her hands. Well, if he was a jerk, then he'd for sure tell… Over the years, she's seen him change and do some pretty cruel things as a joke, but maybe like he was saying, that was just him trying to adapt and he only did those things out of survival?

"Okay," she softly sighed. "I'll be careful."

When she looked back over at him, he was grinning gently. It was a smile she hadn't seen in the longest time. Normally the only kinds of smiles she's seen him present to the world were either smirks, smug grins, or something that he called "The Smolder"—that smile used to be a joke between them when they used to be considered "friends"…whatever that meant anymore to him. But it obviously still had some meaning left to him. Its true definition hadn't completely drained out of him quite yet; there were still a few drops of it left.

In all honestly, she never wanted to truly believe he was bad—which was part of the reason as to why she was so quick to trust him. The other part was because she knew him…well, at least used to know him. But he didn't seem to have changed much, now that he was talking with her. So it was safe to say she knew him…right?

Flynn suddenly heaved out a sigh. "Thank you. Now what was it you wanted to ask?"

She pursed her lips, snapping her gaze over at him. "Why did you guys destroy DreamWorks' Winter Ball? Don't you think that was going a little far? And whose idea was it?"

"Ha, well," he laughed tensely, glancing over at her before quickly averting his gaze. His grip tightened against the steering wheel. Pursing his lips, he sighed. "Because it was a stupid idea brought up by some stupid guy, and Hans seemed to love it," he gritted, "so…we followed through with the plan. Plus it's DreamWorks High—why _wouldn't _we do something like that?"

As she stared at him with hard eyes, she then had a flashback moment. It was a Monday, and he and Hans were laughing…he had just burst through the crowd, exploding like a bomb through them all, exclaiming how he had some ingenious plan… Her eyes widened to the size of the moon. "It was you…"

He seemed to have stiffened at this. "Wh-what? I—"

"Please don't lie…I'm just barley starting to trust you again…" She softened her facial features, pulling her gaze away from him. Maybe he'd feel better if she wasn't staring at him so judgmentally…

She knew all too well how intimidating it was to have practically every single pairs of eyes there were in the world to be staring at you, waiting for you to break…to fall…to mess up. The only thing she didn't know was what it felt like to have people stare at you expecting you to be greater than you thought you could ever be…no one's ever looked at her like that…well, maybe there were two or three people she knew…but that was it. Her parents weren't even two of the three people. Every day, before their death, she felt like her parents were always preparing themselves for her to break. Just because she's come home broken a thousand times in the past, didn't mean they needed to prepare themselves everyday…that only caused her to crack just a little bit each day.

"Alright. You win. It was me," he grimaced, not looking too proud. He lightly snickered, "That's right—you were there, weren't you? You overheard, didn't you?"

"Yeah—just a little—but I didn't know what it meant then…until now, of course," she pulled her gaze out the window. They were now driving down a familiar road. They were still driving through neighborhoods, and she knew it wasn't hers…but she knew this neighborhood just as well as she knew her own—probably a little less, but she still knew it.

"Why did you do it?" she had to ask, slightly shaking her head. "I get that you don't like DreamWorks High very much, but do you think they would ever do such a thing to us? I don't think so…" Her thoughts traveled back to Jack Frost. She remembered he seemed to be a fairly decent guy—at least a much more decent guy than Hans. She caught herself in surprise. That's right. She met Jack. Well, she sort of met him. It was more of just an encounter of the whole damsel-in-distress.

"I..." He paused, furrowing his eyebrows. "I…don't…know…" He shook his head slowly. "I don't know. I guess I just thought that it would fit this person I've created myself to be…that it would fit Flynn Rider. I don't know—whenever I'm around the baseball team, I just get really competitive…I feel like I just need to…" He exhaled deeply. "I don't know."

"It's okay, Flynn…I'm not mad at you…I'm just…sad that you guys had to ruin things for DreamWorks High…that's all," she softly spoke, eyeing the fairly big houses they passed. This place looked so familiar, but she just couldn't wrap her finger around it.

She heard him lightly chuckle, which caused her to peel her focus off of the houses and stick it on him curiously. When he glanced over at her, he cleared his throat, stating, "You still care about actual people themselves, and don't take into mind about their backgrounds, and the fact that Disney and DreamWorks are the greatest rivals there are, probably throughout this whole entire planet."

Elsa rolled her eyes, pulling her gaze off of him and back to her window. "I don't see what's so funny," she muttered under her breath.

"I find it so funny," he began, clearly having heard her, "because everyone would think you're crazy for actually having _feelings_ for the people at DreamWorks High. They would think you're inhuman and that you need to change, when in truth, they're the ones that need to change—I need to change. I've gotten so used to the idea that Disney High is the best and that we always need to win, and that we're the only normal ones with feelings…I guess I've forgotten that everyone has feelings," he snickered.

Smiling, she huffed, "You think?"

He nodded his head. "Yeah—you know it's different, being around you, than it is around Hans… Anyway—next question?—if any?"

She took in a deep breath. Right. She still had one more thing to ask him about. Now here was the real question she's been wanting to ask him: "Why did you say goodbye to Rapunzel?" She turned to look at him. "And I'm not saying that literally, even though you actually did that—but why did you end our friendship? Was it that we were too much of a burden or something? Was it too much of a burden to still be friends with us?—with her? Why did you do that, Flynn? You do know you can have more than one or two friends, right? You do know there are people out there that constantly_ wish _they had more friends than just having their mirror to talk to, right? You do know how hard it is for some people to have a friend, right?"

"I—" he began.

"I'm not finished—" she cut him off— "Do you _know _how much of an affect you made on Rapunzel? Do you even care? You clearly still care at least a little bit because you're here with me now—so why? _Why, _Flynn? Why?" She tightened her jaw muscles as she kept her eyes glued on his stiff figure. She then tore her eyes away, suddenly recognizing the neighborhood they were in. Her eyebrows knitted together, and she eyed the familiar houses they were passing by. "Why are we…?" She glanced over at him.

"It's out of habit—this is the usual route I take on my way home," he sighed, clenching his jaw. "I—it feels more normal if I take this way."

Elsa's gaze slowly drifted over to the upcoming house on their left, which was the most familiar house out of the rest: it was Rapunzel's house. "But this is the longer way…"

"I know. Like I said, it feels more natural to come this way," he stated once more as they passed Rapunzel's empty home; her parents were gone at work, and Rapunzel was where she normally was after school every day: cheer practice.

She couldn't help but slightly gawk a little. This whole entire time he's always taken this route and driven by Rapunzel's house…? Her deep ice blue eyes hardened, and she glided her gaze over to him, saying nothing. He still…

"Look, I know how this looks, and…" He sighed with much obstruction. "Let's just say that I could no longer stand being next to the girl I began to have a fairly large, indiscreet, actual liking towards. And considering how close we were as just friends, well—I don't know—I just thought she'd be a thousand times better off with a guy that wasn't me, and that it'd hurt and be quite awkward between us if her feelings didn't return in the way I wanted, which I assumed didn't. So when you think things through, what I did was completely reasonable—what I did saved a friendship that could've turned for the worst, and a possible heartbreak that would never heal correctly and that I could probably not stand to live with—well, would never forget.

"And keeping my feelings locked up was not an option—I don't think I'd be able to handle or control myself—so! I did just what I had to do to make both of our lives less complicated! It was hard, but I did what I had to do!" he exclaimed, slightly out of breath. Sucking in a deep breath, he asked, "Now did I miss anything? Was that a good enough answer for you?"

She was speechless at first. Everything he had just said came crashing all around her like a hurricane. What he said did make sense now…it was so unlike him to just do what he did back then…but then again, it _was _just like him to do what he did. He only did what he did out of fear. To say she didn't get why he let his fears get in the way would be quite an understatement. When she finally regained herself from the blow, she quietly spoke up.

"But did you ever think about the possible effects of what you did would do…?"

It took a moment for him to reply, but he eventually did after he made a turn.

"Yes…I did," Flynn spoke softly. "But I didn't want to take any chances. All possible ways I'd be left torn, except for that one way, but really, what _were _the chances? It was one out of a million. I chose the way that would less likely hurt her. So I said goodbye…"

As Elsa sat still, she slowly glided her gaze away from him. "Right," she mumbled, evoking the scene for a callback. Everything she ever questioned about Flynn now was beginning to alter like a mood ring. He chose to let their friendship go and found a new one in attempt to leave what they had behind—a sigh that he was moving on. But he never really did move on, now did he? He never could…could he? Back when they actually hung out with each other, he and Rapunzel practically were with each other every single day. It was normal for him to go over to her house at least once a day. If he truly moved on, he wouldn't waste his gas and drive down this road, which really was a good mile longer to his house. He could easily have taken a different path that would've been a good five minutes quicker. If only Rapunzel knew…

The rest of the drive, Flynn and Elsa stayed silent, distracted by their own thoughts. It felt like forever until Flynn finally drove up to their school parking lot and parked beside her blue car. She barely even realized their picture background had stopped its view of streaming houses passing by. When he heaved out a sigh, saying they were back at the school, was when she blinked, taking a full examine of where they were.

"Oh…right…" She blinked before she unbuckled herself, picking up her backpack she had set down beside her feet at the very start before she took her seat, and began grabbing for the door handle. Struggling to place her hand on the latch, she heaved out a sigh and forced her gaze over to her hand. Finally grabbing hold of the latch and opening the door, the cold, chilly air running throughout her body like an electric vibe, she froze.

Peering over at Flynn, who was staring blanking straight ahead, she cocked her head to the side as she stated: "One last question."

He quickly snapped his gaze over to her, his caramel brown eyes now seeming a lot less harder than they always appeared to be. "Alright," he grinned. "Shoot. Hit me with your best shot."

"Why your car? Why did you take me to your car, when you could've easily taken me outside to some random corner out of sight?"

He chortled. "So it'd be harder for you to run away, if you ever tried."

She gawked at him. "Seriously?" she asked, hopping out of his car, landing on the iced asphalt with a loud crunch, sounding like she had just stepped on a bag full of chips.

"Hey, would you ever try to jump out of a moving car? I don't think so," he smugly said in a singsong voice.

She snorted. Right. She probably wouldn't dare jump out of a moving car... She shook her head, beginning to slam the door shut, but he quickly called out to her.

"Wait!"

She halted, and widened the opening of the door, raising her eyebrows at him. It was then when she finally realized the scent in his car—she barely realized there even was one when she got in. It must've been because she used to be so used to it before… It was a pleasant smell—it was fresh with a slight mix of cologne and that nice homey smell certain houses were able to carry. It was familiar and, as weird as this sounded, it had a comforting smell. It had a sense of warmness to it.

"Could you keep this conversation between us, uh…classified? Like, don't tell anyone about it? Especially to _her?_" he asked.

Elsa bit her lower lip. She couldn't tell this to Rapunzel? But that was the one person who needed to hear this most… She dropped her gaze down her light shaded, rolled up skinny jeans, ending up at her blue and white pointed flats. She silently nodded her head.

"Promise?" he added.

"I promise," she reassured. "But, promise me you'll tell her this eventually, alright? Even if you don't think so, she really needs to know this."

He pursed his lips, sighing as he nodded his head. "Right…" Turning his body forward, he then turned his head back to her. "So, will I be seeing you at the Winter Ball?"

She was about to answer no, but then she remembered she had just gotten asked today. "Yeah…you will," she nodded her head, a small smile stretching across her lips.

"Great, well, it was nice talking to you, Elsa. I hope it won't always be like this…"

Her smile stretched a little more. "Yeah, I hope so too," she murmured. "Well, I should get going, so…see you…later, I guess." She then slammed the door, barely catching his words of farewell.

As his car drove off, she headed over to her car, finding her keys and unlocking it. By the time she was in and settled in her seat, she couldn't help but find her gaze wandering back over to Flynn's leaving car. Pursing her lips, she sighed, putting her keys into the ignition. Now that that just happened…it was about time she began heading off to practice her ice skating.

* * *

**Gah! I didn't update this in time! It's 34 minutes past midnight! Ugh...I'm sorry. I apologize for any mistakes, I just wanted to update and post this, and not bother to read through it.**

**I didn't have any time to write to be able to post this Saturday. I just ran a half marathon yesterday morning, and to say I feel and probably look like a crippled, old lady whenever I go down the stairs or try to bend down because my upper thighs in the front kill and are sore, would just about explain it all for me. These past few days I have been getting an hour range of 3-4 hours of sleep each night, so yesterday I pretty much slept all day, and all night, paying all of that lack of sleep off.**

**Anyways...thank you so much for the reviews! And also for everything else! Thank you for reading! :D**

**My next update, you probably may have noticed I have certain days I aim for, but if not, just keep in mind my update days will most likely either be: Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday, unless I say so otherwise. Or, like today,I'm now 40 minutes past midnight, so (it's pretty much Monday). **


	14. Her Near So-Called Death Experiences

The Winter Ball came by a lot quicker than Elsa had anticipated for. One second it was Monday, and she was in a pure, slow, gooping misery that she felt she would never escape until a millennium had passed by, it felt almost as if she were stuck in a pool full of honey, but then before she knew it, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday had zipped right on by like they were on a zip line. It was so weird. She barely even remembered sleeping for each of those nights. Had it really been that quick? She felt like someone had pressed paused on her, and then cut her out and moved her forward until it was Saturday evening, and then hit the "Play" button, making her resume in a different time and place she wasn't familiar with.

Maybe why she felt like time had slipped right on by was because her thoughts no longer were an irritation to her; they no longer pricked and picked at her brain like an annoying hand that didn't know how to keep to itself. She no longer had any problems with the many unwanted voices that filled her head about what went down at DreamWorks High. It now was her own voice she heard. Her thoughts were now what ruled over her head—they completely consumed her. All she could think about was what happened on Monday after school, when she went on that drive with Flynn. She still couldn't believe she actually talked to him. Her whole car drive on Monday to the frozen lake she couldn't help but pinch herself every few minutes.

She felt like she was living in a dream because of that one significant event that changed every single thought and confusion that broke her puzzled brain into different shapes and pieces that didn't fit together; now every piece came together nicely and fit like a key and lock. The following days after Monday, whenever she'd catch a glimpse of Flynn anytime in particular, her mind no longer clouded up with judgment. It was clean and clear in her mind, and her head felt so much lighter. She was glad she no longer had to think of Flynn like he was some useless heavy weight in her head, weighing her thoughts down into the negatives. She felt significantly happier, as much as she felt lighter. She felt relieved.

But despite these positive effects on her mind that she's been experiencing, there also were some negative effects—some near death experiences (more like unnerving experiences that nearly gave her a heart attack, and luckily she got away out of trouble by following the certain procedures that came with saving herself from the situations she got in, but to her, it felt like she could've just died on the spot). One of her near experiences was when she was driving at the wheel and her mind drifted off, also somehow taking her eyes with it into its imaginary world, and she nearly crashed into the yellow car in front of her, but luckily her eyes drifted back to the real world and her focus came to the rescue just in time and she slammed her foot on the brakes.

Another one was when she was walking up the stairs and her mind was so distracted that she wasn't keeping track of what step she was at, so by the time she came to the top of the stairs and her foot lifted up, expecting another step, when she put her foot down, it took her by surprise and she nearly fell over. Luckily no one was around to see her do this. But there was a mirror directly across from her, so she was able to catch her blushing face and her small little stunt that looked absolutely pathetic. She really wished she never saw herself through the mirror; it would've felt a lot less humiliating for her.

And last but not least, her most _prized _near death experience that really could've possibly killed her, just happened yesterday, Friday afternoon. Anna had dragged her out of the house to go shopping, despite her constant excuses, claiming that she had other things to do, rather than go out and buy a new dress for this Winter Ball with Edward. "Nope, nope, and, let me think—nope! You're coming with me, whether or not you want to or not! C'mon, Elsa, you're always saying you're busy!—couldn't you at least go shopping with me?!" Anna had shouted cheerfully as she dragged Elsa out the front door—literally, actually dragging her out the door.

"Anna, I, um…" Elsa had to stop to think of a good excuse. _Shoot…_ She was out of them. "I…err…oh! I have homework to work on—"

"Pssshhh! Homework-schmomework!" her sister mocked, shrugging it off like it were some dust. "Puh-_lease,_ Elsa, I swear that's all you ever do!—that and stay up in your room, and go driving off to wherever you go…" She rolled her sparkling, bright blue eyes, tugging harder on Elsa's wrist, while Elsa struggled to keep her feet planted firmly against the doorframe, helping her stay put inside the house. " C'mon! It's just for a new dress—it'll be fun! I am not allowing you to seriously find some random dress in your closet—not that you don't have extremely beautiful, glamourous dresses in there (you really need to take me shopping with you—I have no idea how you came across dresses like those)—but this is the _Winter Ball!_ Every dance you go to calls for a shopping trip—including buying a brand new dress!" Anna had squealed excitedly.

"Anna, I…" Elsa began, at a loss for words. Not that she didn't want to go with her sister…it's just she was so nervous about the things they would talk about. Sure, it sounded silly, but there some things she really didn't want to have to talk about with Anna…she didn't know how to evade the topic if they ever got onto it. She knew Anna would probably push until she got an answer.

"Now, c'mon, big sis! You're…_coming_…with…_me!"_ Anna had grunted as she pulled with all of her might. And that was that.

Anna had managed to pull Elsa out the front door and the two headed on their way over to the local mall. Anna was happier than ever, whereas Elsa was having a much harder time sharing that same, heightened joy; she could barely manage a gritted smile without seeming distressed. The whole drive there, she was on edge, but her gleeful sister didn't even notice. Anna chirped happily and gleefully that this would be so much fun and that Elsa wouldn't regret ever coming along, the whole way to their destination.

It was a relief when they arrived and Anna hadn't shot at the topics Elsa really didn't want to have to distribute into their conversations. From there, as soon as they stepped foot inside the mall, she knew that Anna probably would export out all other topics, besides the latest fashion trend and clothing, so she knew she was on safe grounds, which helped ease her discomforts and allowed her to relax a little, and actually let her guard down to enjoy the time she was going to be spending with her sister.

By the time the two sisters had gone inside practically every high-end fashion store and now were on the escalator, heading to the second floor, Elsa had finally found her dress, which Anna had gushed looked absolutely gorgeous on her. They were now on the search for shoes, and most of the stores they had in mind were on the second floor.

"Oh, my gosh! Elsa!" Anna squealed excitedly. "That dress—oh, my gosh! So beautiful! It's so chic! Oh, but man! Do you remember the lady at the cash register and how we totally thought she was a man?! But then when we hear her voice, everything just flipped on us? Oh my—that was so funny, yet so embarrassing! I called her 'sir'! Oh, she probably really hates me now!" she gasped in horror.

"Anna, I'm sure she won't even remember you the next time you visit," Elsa lightly laughed, glancing down at the vintage colored shopping bag she held with a white bow tying it around the handles, along with a piece of tape that sealed the bag shut with the store's logo on it. She had to admit…she really did like the dress.

"Oh, I bet she totally has a wall of fame of people she absolutely hates and throws darts at!" Anna proclaimed, jaw gaping. "Elsa, she's gonna come hunt me down. What do I do? I bet she just barely added me onto this wall of fame!"

Elsa simply shook her head. "What? Don't be silly, Anna—she's not going to hunt you down…"

"She's totally going to hunt me down!"

"Anna, please—be reasonable," Elsa rolled her eyes as she stepped off of the flattening steps of the escalator.

Anna opened her mouth to protest as she began to step off of the moving escalator, but suddenly a black bug flew across her face, and she jumped back in surprise, the movement of the escalator moving forward causing her to lose her balance and begin to fall backwards. "Who-o-a—" she gasped as her upper body tipped her back.

Elsa's eyes widened. "Anna!" she cried, stepping forward just as her sister officially lost her footing and fell back from the suspended fall.

"I gotcha—!" someone exclaimed in reassurance behind Anna, and before Elsa knew it, sure enough, there was someone behind her sister, holding her up—a guy, to be exact.

She sighed in relief, stepping forward to help her sister up and thank whoever it was that saved her little sister, but as soon as she saw the face, she froze and became stiff.

"Oh, ha…that's embarrassing…" Anna laughed under her breath. "Who knew that a stupid, small black bug could cause such a commotion…and of course it had to be me that it happened to…"

As the guy helped Anna stand upright and find her footing, she stepped off of the escalator, and turned to thank her hero. "You know, if things were different, that would've been a really good trust fall, and you would've for sure pass the test…but," her sheepish smile faded and evolved into a grim smile, "it wasn't…and I fell…and now it's just plain embarrassing because it was just a bug…"

"Nah—hey, don't worry about it—but really, you fell because of a bug?" he amused, crossing his arms.

Anna's grim smile dropped and she blinked at him, gawking a little. "Oh, well, _yeah_, wouldn't you jump back if something totally unexpected flew across your face?"

"Nope, I'd just swat it away," the blonde-haired guy stated smugly. "Like most _normal _people would do…"

"Oh…and is that a characteristic for men who come from the planet called Jerk-face?" she shot, stepping up to him, trying to size him up, even though she was so much smaller compared to him she soon realized as she compared her own lanky arms to his. Dang…she needed to work out more or something… "And it's so normal for people to jump away from something that flies across their face, too!" she added, crossing her arms with a huff, slightly going up on her tiptoes to try to meet his eyelevel.

"Maybe in your world, but in the real world, I'm pretty sure most people result in swatting the bug away from their face, rather than nearly falling backwards and breaking their neck on an escalator," he grinned resultantly, looking down at her, despite her attempts at leveling herself off with him.

She sighed in defeat with her height compared to his, and moved on to just standing with her chest puffed and her chin lifted. "Are you sure it's just not your _own _fantasy world you're thinking of, _dude?_" she shot, not sure what else to call him.

"Are you sure it's just not _your _own fantasy world?" he fired back, his twinkling brown eyes taunting her over the edge.

Her face contorted, and she gave him a look. "Okay, well, is it normal for people to always be…uh…"—she glanced behind him at the escalator—"…prepared to catch someone who's beginning to fall backwards on an escalator?" she challenged, raising her eyebrows indignantly at him.

The guy furrowed his eyebrows in response. "What? I just saved your neck—normally people are grateful that—" he shook his head— "Who—who are you?"

"Wouldn't you like know," she snorted, placing her hands on her hips.

"What are you—some freshman from—"

"_No,_ I'm actually a sophomo—"

"Oh, and what's your name? Penelope Powow-wow-wowsky or something—?"

Anna gawked. "Ha, ha," she dryly laughed, forcing each bit out. "_No!—_don't be ridiculous!—it's _Anna Winters, _got that, Mr. Franken-stupid-jerk-face—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa—respect the name!" he cut in, grabbing hold of her shoulders. "Don't you know who you're dealing with?" He released her, cocking his head with an expectant look.

She simply raised an eyebrow at him, looking him up and down, and simply shrugged. "No," she innocently stated, which she really didn't know who he was. He seemed slightly familiar, now that he mentioned it, but still—he was an unknown face to her. He was just some random guy who happened to catch her when she was falling backwards.

The blonde sighed. "Okay, Anna, we'll take this from the top: Kris…toff…Bjorgman. There! As simple as that!"

"Kristoff Bjorman?" she tested lamely with furrowed eyebrows. How old was this guy again? And he was treating _her _like she needed the mental help? No, no, no…uh-uh. That wasn't right. He had this whole thing switched up. She opened her mouth, ready to testify to him, but that's when she noticed another guy standing behind him. This guy had brown, shaggy hair, and was slightly less bough and had a leaner built body. He was just barely a little shorter than Kristoff, and he seemed to be getting a little too amused to their bickering.

Instantly Anna clamped her mouth shut, taking in a deep breath. Closing her eyes, she reopened them to the blonde and managed a fake smile. "Okay, Kristoff, my sister is waiting for me, and I'm sure you probably have somewhere better to be than here talking with me, so if you'll excuse me—" she turned— "Elsa?" Elsa no longer was there.

She blinked, scanning her surroundings in search of her sister. Since when did she leave…?

"Right, your 'sister'…" Kristoff scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"No, sh-she was right there! I don't… I don't—" she continued to scan the area.

Suddenly the shaggy, brown-haired boy cut in, saying, "Uh, actually, I think I saw her go over there inside that store, right there—she had really white, blondish looking hair, right?"

Anna nodded her head.

The brown-haired boy grinned. "Then I definitely saw her and she went right inside that store over there."

Smiling, she thanked the boy, and when she looked at Kristoff, she heaved out a sigh, rolling her eyes as she walked away, in search of her sister.

In the end, Anna did find Elsa in the store the boy had pointed her over to, and for the rest of the day, she was ranting on about the nerve of this guy, Kristoff, to Elsa, as they searched for the perfect shoes. Elsa merely smiled and nodded at each thing. She felt bad that she walked away and left Anna alone without even telling her, but she _had _to leave, for as luck would have it, she recognized both the blonde and the brown-haired boy. And if she remembered who they were, then they would remember who she was if they had seen her—meaning, the blonde had seen her, so he most definitely would've recognized her… At least that's what she assumed.

She only stood there for a few minutes as the conversation went on by. She left when the blonde, Kristoff, was beginning to introduce himself. The shaggy, brown-haired boy was kind of getting on her nerves, for he kept staring at her with this interesting look. She wasn't sure if he had seen her from that event on Friday—which she was fairly sure he hadn't—but she just couldn't stand his forest green eyes boring into her like they were trying to set her up in flames and melt all of her secrets out. So she did the only thing her mind kept telling her to do: she ran away.

Of course she didn't literally run away, it was more of a brisk walk, but still... Her actions were practically her running away. Her heart wouldn't stop pounding in her ears like a sounding drum; it felt and sounded much similar to when someone's head was about to get chopped off by some large, bladed axe, even though she's never even witnessed such a grotesque scene. But she has seen it in movies…watching them always made her flinch.

Elsa sighed as she stared at herself in her reflection from her vanity mirror, recalling those so-called near death experiences. She began to bite her bottom lip as she stared at her hopeless, dainty, fair skinned figure. She had her platinum blonde hair neatly up in a low, round bun, and her bangs were pulled back, appearing much like how her bangs normally looked when she had her messy French braid. Sighing, she ripped her gaze away from the mirror.

What was she thinking? The worst one out of her near death experiences really wasn't even that bad. If anything, it probably was the least harmful to her…but despite its harmless attributes, it haunted her the most. And the reason why was because she couldn't stop thinking about all of the "what ifs" and "what could haves" if things had ended differently and Kristoff had noticed her. Not that she believed he would do anything rash—but his size did seem just a little intimidating to her, and who knows what could've happened.

Pursing her rusted red lips, she faced herself to the mirror. Taking in a deep breath, she slowly exhaled out. "You're being ridiculous," she slowly told herself. "Stop thinking about this…" She tried to block out her memories and clear her mind, but her memories slowly began to pour back into her head. She groaned lightly at this.

"Miss Elsa?" Kai's voice broke through her closed door. She turned, staring at the closed door. "A Mister…_Edward…_is here…"

She sighed. Well, it was time. Anna had already left a while ago, so it was just her, other than Gerda and Kai. She took one last look at her reflection, and only for a split second she could've sworn she caught herself glaring at herself judgingly. She immediately turned her gaze away, slowly, tentatively peeking back over to her reflection, almost as if she was afraid of what she'd see. But what was so scary about looking at her reflection? She was the one who controlled herself…right?

_Three, two, one…go! _She quickly flashed her eyes over to her reflection. She just saw herself, and nothing more. "What were you expecting…?" she murmured softly to herself. She pursed her lips before she stood up and headed for the door.

* * *

**Hmm...I wasn't sure whether or not to add more towards the end... But whatever. **

**Thank you all for the reviews! And thanks so much for reading! I really do appreciate it!**

**And yes! To those who may have been wondering, my updates are going to be today (no duh ;D), and this coming Saturday, and so forth with the who Wednesday, Saturday/Sunday, Wednesday-and blah, blah, blah, you get the deal. :)**

**For the next chapter, you'll just have to wait and see what happens because it actually may not be what you were quite _exa__ctly _expecting... You'll just have to wait and see.**


	15. The Monsters Within

"_Oh, Giselle!_" Edward moaned as he slammed his white plastic cup down on the mini, round table. "Why did this happen to me? I just don't get it…"

Elsa pursed her lips, giving a small sympathetic smile towards her date. So far, all she's been listening to is hearing Edward talk and sulk in his misery. It wasn't like this the whole time, though. For the first half hour, right when she and Edward arrived, they danced a little, but then after that, for the rest of the time up until now, she's been hearing Edward out, and honestly she really didn't mind. She found the idea of love so interesting, and to actually hear an actual love story that was factual and not just made-up just made her believe even more in the fact that there is such thing as true love, and that in this world everyone has a match, despite the way things were turning out for Edward at the moment.

From what she was hearing from Edward, he really did love Giselle, and even though it pained him, he could tell Giselle was falling out of love with him, after having spent so much time with this college guy named Robert or something…so he did the only thing he could do: let her go. According to him, Robert originally was this colorless, killjoy type of guy who was simply just supposed to help tutor Giselle (he needed a job desperately), and one thing lead to another, and then two people who were complete opposites fell in love with one another. The end.

"The moral of this story," Edward moaned with his head placed on his arm that was resting against the tabletop, "is to _never _fall in love…"

Weakly nodding her head, Elsa tentatively patted him on the back as she gazed around the room. "I'm sure things will turn out better in the end—I mean, it's not like you gave your heart away…you can learn to love someone else… It's not like if you choose to love one person, then your love remains with them for eternity…" She couldn't help but roll her eyes, peering over at him. He was clearly in no mood to stop moping around. She sighed, biting her lower lip as she stared up at the rotating disco ball.

The Winter Ball was being held in this extremely nice reception building, Aphrodite Estate, in the middle of a park that was really popular to hold events at during the spring, for that was when all of the flowers in the gardens that surrounded it were at their prettiest. But because it was still snowy outside, there weren't very many colors that radiated off of the nature surrounding this building; however, that didn't mean it didn't look pretty, here in the gardens, further known as Gaia Gardens. There was still Christmas lights that adorned each and every tree and bush nicely, which illuminated in many bright colors, causing the snow to sparkle in different hues, which Elsa absolutely loved to look at.

Every year Disney's Winter Ball was held here at this same exact location. Elsa wasn't quite sure why, but she never complained. She absolutely loved to look at the decorations and lights that decorated Gaia Gardens—and the fact that the Winter Ball was held here during her favorite season always gave her a free excuse to come visit and see the gardens during the time she personally thought it looked at its best. Gaia Gardens was quite a ways away from where she lived; it took about thirty minutes to an hour from her house to here, depending on how traffic was and how slow she'd have to drive in her car, so she rarely ever visited it.

"Elsa! Hey!" Rapunzel squealed, dashing up to the table the platinum blonde was at.

"Rapunzel—!" Elsa smiled, barely coming to a stand before her friend rammed into her, constricting her in a tight bear hug.

When they pulled apart, Rapunzel looked her up and down with wide, bright green eyes. "Wow! You look amazing! I had no idea you were coming to this! At first I thought, 'No, she wouldn't,' but then I thought, 'Oh but she would because this is her favorite dance!' and oh—I'm just so happy to see you!" she grinned, embracing Elsa one more time.

"Yeah, it's great to see you!—and you look good too," Elsa said as soon as she was released, taking notice to Rapunzel's pearl pink, silk dress that flowed down to her ankles where her silver heels peeked out from below.

"Aww, thank you!—but really—you should look at yourself." Rapunzel then peered behind Elsa, spotting Edward languishing across the tabletop, playing with his empty plastic cup. Her eyebrows furrowed. "And…Edward took you?"

Elsa glanced behind her, finally realizing how pitiful her date actually looked; she nearly face-palmed her forehead, feeling a sudden rush of embarrassment _for_ him. She hardly realized how sad looking he appeared. Pursing her lips, she slowly nodded her head, facing her friend. Well, this felt slightly awkward. When she first saw him at the front door, when he came to get her, he looked quite dashing…and now... "Umm…hmm," she lightly laughed, having dropped her gaze down to the floor. "Well, really you can't blame him for looking that way—he's a little torn at the moment…" She didn't want to mention Giselle's name, for she had a feeling he would just go on another one of his pity tangents, and that was the last thing that was going to help him recover and get over his problems.

Rapunzel lightly gasped, "Oh…right…" She nodded her head, biting her lower lip. "Giselle," she mumbled, crossing her arms. "Well," she huffed. "I think I'll join you guys." She sat down in the empty white seat beside Elsa.

Elsa blinked, slowly taking a seat. "Oh, uh, okay..." She gently placed her hands on the tabletop, glancing between Edward, who remained in his sulking position, and Rapunzel, who simply had her right elbow propped up against the tabletop, lifting her head in place.

At first she wasn't sure what to say, but then it hit her. She glanced to her left, where Rapunzel sat, starting off with: "So…where's Phillip? He's the one that asked you, right?"

"Oh, uh, right—he's, um," the brunette cleared her throat, "using the restrooms."

Elsa nodded her head, staring across the room at all of the boys and girls, slow dancing. She had to blink at this. She barely even realized the music changed from its upbeat pop sound to this slow, piano waltz. As she continued to stare across the crowd, scanning each couple, she then spotted Flynn. He was dancing with a blonde—she couldn't tell whether or not it was Aurora or Cinderella, or maybe it was Kristine—but she did catch something. He was looking at her. She smiled lightly at him, quickly realizing he wasn't looking at her. She glanced over to Rapunzel, who was looking down, swirling her pointer finger against the tabletop.

She dropped her gaze, quickly peering back up to where Flynn was. His words he had said earlier that week echoed in her head, and she so badly wanted to recite them for the girl beside her, but her lips were sealed. _You made a promise._ She lightly snickered. Now she wished she really hadn't made that promise. True, she could easily just spill it all out to Rapunzel now, but that wouldn't be right. It didn't _feel _right. It was Flynn's right to tell Rapunzel—not hers. And either way, whether or not she had the authority to tell Rapunzel, she still probably shouldn't. It wasn't right.

Elsa cringed her hands in irritation, gritting her teeth. _Ugh. Stupid moralities, _she scorned inwardly. _It wasn't right…_ Those three words were what held her back. She wanted to tell her…but no…she shouldn't. She couldn't. She heaved out a sigh, suddenly noticing a girl dressed in a crimson gown with her hair up in a messy bun, approaching their table. It was Jane.

"Hey," Jane began, playing around with her black camera, "is it alright if I get a picture of you and your date for the yearbook?"

Elsa blinked. "Yearbook?" she timidly asked.

"Yeah—you and your, uh," she glimpsed over to Edward, "date, can just come with me right out here, if that's okay…" Jane pointed to where a set of double doors were closed.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Elsa smiled, glancing down to Edward as she stood. "C'mon, you need to stop moping around and get up," she pulled on his arm.

He sighed, but to her relief, reluctantly stood up. She smiled gently at him, leading him over to the double doors where Jane was leading them out of. When they exited the heated room, a burst of chilled, fresh air engulfed them as they walked outside onto a woodened deck that surrounded the building they were just in. Jane pointed for them to stand a little ways away from the double doors that were closing ever so slowly like they were stuck in honey, and began to adjust her camera to the setting she wanted.

Meanwhile, Elsa dragged Edward over to the designated area, up against the building's smooth beige exterior. Straightening out his burgundy suit, making him appear as presentable as possible, she looked up at him, staring into his sky blue eyes. "Now _smile—_I've let you pout around enough—we're at a dance—we're here to have fun—remember that," she mumbled to him as she took her place beside him, heaving out a sigh through her nose.

Edward nodded his head, placing his right hand in his pocket while he placed his other hand on her waist. She quickly glanced up at him, grinning when she found him smiling his commercial white smile. Gazing back to the camera, she clasped her right hand over her left, placing her hands in front of her.

"Perfect! Yes!—hold still," Jane squatted slightly down, angling her camera. "Okay, one, two, three…" She took a picture, and a blinding white flash flashed off.

Elsa blinked, seeing black smudges in her view, but she kept her smile plastered across her face.

"Okay, hold it—I want one more—and one, two, three…" Jane took another picture, followed by another blinding flash. This time Elsa managed to keep her eyes wide open. Jane stared down at her camera, pressing some buttons, and grinned. "Perfect. You two look great. Thank you. You're free to go." And with that said, she headed back inside the building, grinning softly at her camera, probably looking at the pictures she had just taken.

Edward sighed, dropping his hand from Elsa's waist. She turned to him, sucking in a deep breath. "So…"

"Wait—" he clasped his hands together— "Can I speak first, please?" She nodded her head, pursing her lips. "Great, so…look, I'm sorry for…" He shook his head with raised eyebrows. "I'm really sorry for completely falling apart on you—you know that's kind of, embarrassing, now that I think about it, but, look, I just needed to let it out, and, uh… I, uh… I promise to make the rest the night fun?" He flashed her an unsure smile.

"N-no, it's totally fine, I…I really liked hearing what you had to say and all…" She dropped her gaze. Peering up at him, a small smile graced her lips, and he grinned.

"Oh, well, I'm glad you don't think lowly of me…well, maybe you do…?"

She laughed lightly. "No, no…you—no, I don't think lowly of you," she said as they began to head back over to the double doors.

"Oh, well, that's a relief because—" he began, opening the far left door, suddenly freezing up while his jaw slightly unhinged itself.

Elsa blinked. "What…? Edward? Is something wrong…?" When he didn't respond, she stepped forward, poking her head into the building. Instantly her eyes widened to the size of the moon as she watched the scene unravel before her and the shrieking voices of her fellow classmates reached her ears. She quickly pushed past Edward who was stiff as ice, and stumbled in. "What's going on?" she gasped.

People and their dates were rushing around everywhere—everyone was trying to run out the doors—all except for the ones Elsa and Edward stood at. But that changed quickly, as soon as people noticed them and began bulldozing over to them. By the time Elsa realized this, she quickly stepped out of the way, stepping further into the building that was filling with screams and shouts as each second ticked by like a ticking time bomb. This was crazy. One second she and Edward leave with Jane for some photo shoots, and then the next, when they return, there's a riot going on. How did they not hear anything while they were outside?

Her head was spinning. Where was Anna? And what about Rapunzel? She needed to find them.

As bodies began to surround her and push against her, she snapped back into focus. She was going to try and find her sister and friend first—she just had to make sure they were okay. And granted she knew how absolutely dumb that idea and plan was, she just had to try and find them. She had a really bad feeling about this. And maybe it was the adrenaline rush messing with her mind, but she didn't care. She had to find Anna and Rapunzel. With that thought in mind, she began to move forward, but suddenly she heard Edward's voice call out to her. She turned her head, not finding the owner of the voice anywhere.

That was strange. She could've sworn she heard—

"Elsa!"

As she searched the moving crowd trying to squeeze their way out the door too many at a time, she suddenly spotted a familiar face. Edward was struggling to stay put in the doorway, and he was trying to push his way in, but he clearly wasn't getting very far.

"Edward!" she called back.

"Elsa—! C'mon! Let's go!" he shouted, trying his best to stay put and not let the rush of the crowd's current pull him back.

She shook her head. "No! It's fine! Go! I—" someone suddenly rammed into her, causing her to stagger forward with a gasp— "I'll be fine! Just go!"

He gave her a look that questioned her sanity, and he shook his head, refusing to leave.

"GO! Please! It's okay! I just need to make sure my sister's okay!"

Edward lingered at the doorway with a concerned look, but he eventually nodded his head and soon disappeared into the wave of people heading out the doors. Elsa stared at where he used to be, until someone jerked her forward and she caught hold of her track of thoughts. Clenching her teeth, she turned and slipped seamlessly through the crowd like a wet ice cube slipping out of a child's grip. She was surprised at how easily she was making her way into the heart of the building—she was it should've been a thousand times harder. But because of how swiftly she had made her way through, It wasn't long until she finally made her way out to the thinning crowd. Her head was filled with the people's screams and warnings of "Run!" and "They're here for revenge!"

What caught her attention was the fact that the shouts of her fellow classmates were saying "they"…did that mean there were people here, and more than one? What was going on?

She suddenly stopped in the middle of the thinning crowd, glancing here and there, trying to spot the problem. Spinning around, she watched as the people from her school began to drain out the doors, but slowly. Her heart was racing, and she could feel herself beginning to panic for no reason—she didn't even _know _what was going on, so there was no way she was allowing herself to get scared quite yet—not until she knew the actual problem.

As she spun around in circles, her eyes whipping all over the place, she finally stopped. There were still a few people rushing past her, and she could see further off into the room, there were still people in here… So what in the world was going on?! Was she just blind?

"Elsa!"

Elsa perked up at this like she were a deer, her head slowly scanning her surroundings as her eyes passed over the swarming crowds, trying to drain out. And that's when she found the source.

"Rapunzel!" she called out, rushing over to where the frisky-haired brunette was struggling against the crowd, trying to squeeze her way back out through the doors even though she was only getting sucked further in, despite her will of wanting to get out.

"Elsa! Help him!"

"Here, let me—!" Elsa began, going up on her tiptoes, standing on the outskirts of the shoving people.

"Elsa! Help him!—help Eugene! Please! He needs help!" Rapunzel cried, her face overflowing with concern and worry. "Please! Help him!" She pointed urgently in the direction the people had been running from.

Elsa glanced over in the guided direction, her eyes scanning the area, suddenly catching sight where Flynn was. He was backing up with his hands up in caution, and…snowballs were getting thrown in his direction… He was singled out by three.

Quickly finding Rapunzel, now barely visible, pushed further through the doors, Elsa nodded her head, which Rapunzel smiled weakly in return, quickly gathering the bottom of her layered, white, vintage styled dress, and began heading on her way. She knew she was crazy, but she _had _to do something. Flynn was in trouble, and Rapunzel looked so scared… She knew she'd never forgive herself if something bad happened and she could've possibly prevented it—even though she was quite positive she'd actually make things worse. But her adrenaline rush told her otherwise, and she felt like she was the only one who could do anything about this.

As she neared Flynn, edging closer and closer, she suddenly got rammed into and was up on someone's broad shoulder. Gasping, she watched with wide eyes as Flynn began getting further and further away from her. Shaking her head, trying to catch her breath, she looked down, realizing she was a good five feet off the ground. She couldn't help but gape as she struggled to lift herself up from her uncomfortable, bouncing perch, but her hands slipped down and she banged her chin against this person's back Contorting her face, trying to consume the pain and accept it, she rubbed her jaw. "Ow," she groaned under her breath.

Opening her closed eyes, she watched the quick moving feet below her, and that was when she finally realized what just happened to her. Instantly she began to squirm. She was up on someone's shoulder!—probably one of the offenders, she could only assume. She gave another go at lifting herself up, firmly placing her hand on this person's shoulder. "Hey!—put me down!" she writhed, spotting Flynn. He needed help and now!

When her offender didn't set her down, and her bumpy ride caused her hand to slip, once again, causing her to bang her chin against this person's back, Elsa growled. "Let _go _of me!" she shrieked, pounding her fist against this person's back, but not daring to do anything more violent. She quickly glanced up, her face flooding with distress as she watched Flynn getting shoved down to the ground. She grinded her teeth. Why wasn't he fighting back? She knew he could do it… She tried to glance behind her at her offender. Okay, this _punk _who was carrying her away hostage needed to set her down, and _now. _"Hey—!" she began.

"Excuse me!" Elsa heard a familiar voice holler, and her offender abruptly came to a stop.

"_Anna,_" Elsa gasped quietly, trying to lift herself up and peer behind her.

"That's my sister you've got—" Anna halted with a loud gasp— "Kristoff?!"

Hearing this, Elsa froze. _Kristoff? The blonde? One of Jack's friends? _She blinked, quickly snapping her head straight forward to where there were still quite a bit of people left. She had barely noticed the people were attacking each other. Her eyes widened. The attackers were from DreamWorks High…weren't they? But why…? And that's when everything clicked. She had to inwardly groan. _Ugh, if only Hans hadn't have—_

She quickly pushed this thought aside and began to search the faces of the people. If DreamWorks High was here, and Kristoff was here…that meant Jack had to be here. When her eyes finally landed on who she was looking for, everything officially settled in as a reality to her. She stared at Hans and Jack as they seemed to be having their own little war.

"Anna," she heard Kristoff's alarmed voice. "You go to Disney High?!"

"Wha…? Wh-what are you doing? Put her down!" Anna demanded. "That's my sister you've got there, and I swear to you, if you _don't _put her down, right now," she gritted, "I swear, I wi—"

"Alright, alright," Kristoff cut in. "Calm down—you don't have to do anything—I'm setting her down, alright?"

Elsa perked up at this, suddenly feeling her stomach slide off his shoulder. Her view began to disappear behind his shoulder, and her feet touched the ground. But before her view of Jack and Hans vanished, she caught sight of Flynn out of the corners of her eye, and she gasped lightly. Almost instantly she broke out into a run, first quickly gathering the bottom of her dress and smiling back at Anna before she took off, rushing back over to Flynn.

She felt so stupid for not thinking quick enough or smart enough—of _course _it was DreamWorks High that was attacking them!—and with snowballs! Oh, how she was just so stupid!—wait, no, that's what _Hans _was. Ugh, if only she could grab that Fool's neck and just—

Elsa clenched her teeth, picking up her speed, which wasn't very much, for she was wearing heels (probably would've been smart if she took them off, huh?). She needed to relax… There was absolutely no need for her to lose her head over Hans (and even though it was Flynn's idea, it was Hans who put it into action, so...). _Why hadn't anyone taken a step back and thought that maybe, just maybe, DreamWorks High would want to get revenge? _she angrily thought, glaring up to the ceiling.

Heaving out a sigh, she suddenly found herself ramming into a table, and her upper half heaved forward, and she let out a sharp, disgruntled groan. Pursing her rustic red lips, she slowly tried to suck in a deep breath, and moved alongside the table. On the other side of the table, a little ways away, but not too far, was Flynn on the ground.

The three boys from DreamWorks High began closing in on him, Elsa quickly realized, and she panicked. Who cared if her stomach hurt!—she could worry about that later. Clenching her teeth, she then spotted a clear pitcher of iced water. _Well…_ She pursed her lips. _It was better than nothing… _She closed her eyes. She couldn't believe she was actually going to do this. She felt like this was one of those silly situations where she was going to say something like: "I have a plastic cup, and I'm not afraid to use it!"—except, she didn't have a plastic cup…she had a large jug of iced water—which, personally, it didn't sound too fierce to her… In fact, it sounded quite stupid. She felt stupid. She shook her head, swiftly reopening her eyes.

_It was now or never._ And with that thought in mind, she glanced from side to side, figuring out which way would be faster around the table. When she found both sides were the same distance, she glanced down at the table and placed her hands on its edges. Tightening her grip, getting ready to jump up, she then paused, and quickly turned around, and jumped up on the table so she was sitting on it, and swung her legs around; she figured it'd be easier and best for her to get on the table backwards since she was wearing a dress. Quickly she scooted herself over to the other side and gently set her feet on the ground with a soft _clack, _her dress flaring across the table and drifting down to her legs in the process.

Quickly she grabbed the heavy pitcher with both hands, and as she pulled the jug of water off the table, her arms suddenly dropped down weakly, causing some cold water to splash out. She sucked in a deep breath, shuffling in her steps as she tried to pull up the large pitcher. When she figured she'd probably never be able to fully lift up the large pitcher, she exchanged out her ideal image of what she would do with another way she could use the pitcher as a weapon, and began to swing her arms. By the time her swinging had reached a height that seemed right, she released the pitcher. In a matter of seconds, the three boys from DreamWorks High were splashed with ice cold water, and there was a loud _crash_ of shattering glass.

Instantly Elsa widened her eyes. She completely forgot that that pitcher would break! As she stared in shock at the place where the large shards of broken glass was flaring out, blending in with the ice that was on the ground, the voices of the three boys suddenly reached her ears.

"What the—?!"

"Where did she come from?!"

"Seriously?!"

Listening to the three boys complain, she slowly glided her deep ice blue eyes over to the three boys, whose shirts were blotched in large dark spots. She blinked, her jaw slightly gaping. When her eyes made contact with the boy in the center, her heart stopped. She couldn't move. She was trapped in a trance. Her heartbeat pounded loudly in her ears as her eyes scanned his familiar face with his taunting brown eyes that had never showed any humanity towards her….that still don't show any humanity towards her. Her breathing became shallow.

"Elsa, run—get out of here!" she could hear Flynn's voice shout to her urgently. "Elsa!"

She closed her eyes, reopening them to Flynn who began to get up, but one of the boys quickly kicked him down. She looked in horror at this boy, her senses suddenly coming back to her.

"Elsa…?" the boy in the middle cocked his head.

She swallowed, slowly gazing up at the boy, despite Flynn's continuous warnings—his _begging_—for her to run. As the boy whose hair looked like the wind had brushed it back for him, stepped forward, she took a step back. "Stay—stay away," she stuttered, but he kept moving towards her, looking at her like she was his prey. She was clueless—she didn't know what to do!—she wanted to run, but how? She couldn't even remember how to run! Her mind was trying to think up of an escape plan, but all that was in her head was a blank space. Her legs began to get weary and weak, and before she knew it, she was falling backwards, having tripped over her own feet.

"Oh, Elsa, it is you…." The boy smirked. "My, my, how you have changed," he stepped forward, leaning over her as she struggled to scoot away. "Hmm, if I can recall…there was a different name you were called by…"

Elsa shook her head. _No, no, no ,no ,no... _But her constant refutes began to fade as children's laughter began to fill her head. She still remembered it all too well… _No—you don't remember a thing!—_but the laughter overruled that thought as she stared into the boy's taunting brown eyes.

"Oh, that's right…it was just Little Elsa…poor, poor Little Elsa," he murmured in amusement, as he towered over her.

And that's what triggered the deepest parts of her brain that she had locked up a long time ago to break and let loose her worst memories and fears and consume her in its everlasting, torturing poison…

"_Hey look! Poor Little Elsa's crying," _she heard a young child's voice say mockingly.

"_Aww—did your parents not believe you about those bruises?"_

"_Let me guess, you told your parents that we were throwing rocks at you, again?" _the voice laughed. "_It's all in your head, Little Elsa. It's all in your head… Your parents will never believe you about those bruises—they'll think your lying, like the lying little liar you are. They'll think you just tripped and fell…"_

"_Why do you do that to yourself? Are you suicidal?" _a new voice slipped by.

"_Look at yourself!—you can't even skate! You know you'll never make it. You should just quit. Stop lying to yourself and be honest for once. It's a bad habit that will kill you in the end."_

"_Stop trying to be something you're not—just stop. You're always copycatting me—why?"_

"_You think you're so, so special…but you're not. Everyone else here has something special and unique about them…but then there's you: a lying, stupid, insignificant little girl. How do your parents do it? How do they keep you and not abandon you in the streets? I was sure by now they'd give you up for adoption—I mean, how unlucky your family is. You know, you're really selfish for not getting rid of the problem in your family yourself."_

The haunting sounds of children laughing echoed throughout her mind, and soon, the laughter turned into a chorus of singing:

"_Poor Little Elsa drowning in the deep,_

_F-A-I-L-I-N-G!_

_She lies to herself,_

_she's as fragile as glass,_

_the Bogey Man should come_

_and take her already!_

_She's a mistake alright!_

_A complete disgrace!_

_A creature that deserves an eternity alone!"_

She felt so helpless…she didn't know what to do. She remembered seeing a crowd of boys and girls her age, back when she was in grade school, surrounding her, chanting their deformed, cruel song of that one playground song. She remembered seeing the boy who was currently towering over her, standing in the center of the crowd—he was the one that sometimes would start up the song. His name was…Michael. Michael Cedric.

Most of the time it was actually this girl that would always start up the song…but the very few times it wasn't the girl, it was him. He normally made sure that she heard it at least once, every single day…. It was all coming back to her—it was all crashing down on her. She felt like she was drowning. _That explains why you're so helpless, _a voice echoed in her head. She could feel her eyes heating up as they glazed over. _Poor, poor Little Elsa…_ She pursed her lips, slowly shaking her head.

"You remember it all—don't you…?" Michael mumbled. "I was getting a little afraid I'd never see you again, Little Elsa… Ever since we went to different junior highs, I was worried we'd never have another pleasant acquaintance. But now…here we are. I know where I can find you, Elsa…"

"Elsa…" She heard Flynn quietly call her name, but she didn't look at him. She couldn't. She couldn't move a single muscle. She was frozen stiff, but her mind definitely wasn't.

Suddenly, without further notice, Flynn jumped up to his feet, dodging the flying fist aimed at him, and rammed his shoulder into Michael, quickly picking Elsa up and off the ground before he took off. He could hear their distant voices shouting after him, and he was sure he would get attacked, but he never did. The baseball team from DreamWorks High didn't attack him. Before he exited, he glanced back behind him at the large room that once used to be filled with extravagant dressed boys and girls from his school, but now was nothing but a big mess that originated from his stupidity. He never should have come up with the idea to destroy DreamWorks' Winter Ball. That was clearly a big mistake, and he knew that now. He only wished he knew it sooner. Then everything that happened never would've happened. Nothing would've happened to Elsa…

What had he done?

As he continued to stare at the mess, he suddenly made eye contact with Hans, who didn't look too happy at all. It almost appeared as if he were glaring at him. Flynn clenched his teeth, turning away from the scene and exited the room.

There wasn't a single soul in the hallway or foyer, and the lights were dimly lit. In the air he could smell a cinnamon scented candle burning, and it felt warm and naturally comforting.

"I can walk now…" Elsa murmured.

He slowed down in his walking and glanced down at her. Pursing his lips, he nodded his head and gently set her on her feet, before crossing his arms as he looked at her. Elsa gritted her teeth, picking up her dress, wobbling a little as she headed towards the doors.

"And where might you be going?" Flynn questioned, following right after her.

Elsa opened the clear glass door, sucking in a deep breath of the cold air, before looking at him. "Home." And she began heading out the door.

"Do you even have a ride?" he asked.

She paused, frowning a little. "No," she quietly spoke. She sighed. She just wanted to get to her house and lock herself up in her room. She wanted to be alone. She needed time to recompose herself and think things through…or maybe it was best if she didn't think at all, and pretended this never happened. That sounded easier.

"Here, I'll take you home."

.

As Flynn pulled up into Elsa's driveway, Elsa immediately got out of the car, followed quickly by Flynn. When she approached the front door, he stepped in front of her, securely placing his hand on the door handle.

"Are you okay?" he asked gently.

She nodded her head.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Flynn, please—I just want to go bed," she sighed stressfully.

He stared at her for some time, before he finally asked, "So…what? Are you really going to pretend that nothing ever happened?"

Elsa pursed her lips. _Yes. _She wanted to at least. The whole car ride, she and Flynn didn't utter a single word. It was just pure silence. She just didn't have anything to say, and neither did he. He knew and understood everything already, though. He was there—he was in her memories. But he wasn't in her memories that were like monsters to her. Those memories she made sure lock them up as soon as her life began to get easier and she departed from everyone who ever crushed her. It was funny that as soon as she went into junior high, the bullying stopped. It stopped because she ended up being in different boundaries from practically everyone from her grade school, other than Flynn and Rapunzel and maybe a few others, when it came to junior high, so she didn't have to continue on and be around the people that tormented her. She somehow lucked out with that…

But apparently Fate had other plans for her, now didn't it?

"Do you—" she quietly began, but stopped. She dropped her gaze down to her heels. "Do you think I should worry about Michael? I mean…he knows what high school I go to now…"

She heard Flynn sigh. "I think," he began, and she looked up, "that you…" He fell silent. "I honestly don't know," he finally spoke up.

Elsa nodded her head. She was nervous now that Michael knew where he could possibly locate her if he ever got bored and decided he'd pay her a visit. She remembered him fairly well because he was always picking on her. He was, by far, probably one of the worst acquaintances she's ever had to encounter. He and this other girl…but she didn't dare think her name. She was afraid she may just jinx herself and that girl would appear out of the blue one day too.

"But I do think that you should stay on your guard, and try to always be around at least someone when you're near the school. Michael—he plays dirty sometimes out on the field whenever we're having a game, and—I don't know. Just be careful. I can't be too sure whether or not he's that serious about…you know…" He cleared his throat.

She once again nodded her head. "Okay…" She sucked on her teeth before asking, "Why weren't you fighting back?"

"What?" He looked completely clueless.

"When those three guys were ganging up on you—why didn't you fight back?" she clarified.

"Oh…" He dropped his gaze and began to rub the back of his neck. "That…right."

"I know you can fight, Flynn…"

He glanced at her, sighing. "Alright, yeah—you got me. I was allowing myself to get beat up on purpose." Her face contorted, and she opened her mouth, but he quickly cut her off. "Let me explain: if I get beat up, then the blame can go permanently all on DreamWorks High, an we'll most likely get off the hook for what we did first to them."

She could only gawk at him. He was willing to get beat up, just so DreamWorks High would get punished, even though what they were doing was practically making things even? Who was actually stupid enough to risk getting seriously hurt over a stupid cause? She was flabbergasted. This was a joke.

Flynn, having probably read her mind just through her facial expression, quickly added: "It was Hans' idea…."

Her eyes widened. This was even worse. "You're allowing Hans to control you!" she bursted, the intended question coming out more as a statement.

"No—"

"Yes!"

"No, I—"

"Be honest with yourself, Flynn. Please…" She gave him a look.

He fell silent for a few seconds, and then lightly laughed. "Yeah…I guess you may be right…"

She stared at him. Taking in a deep breath, she pulled her gaze away to where his running car was parked in the driveway. "Well, you should probably get going, so…"

"Ah, right, umm…okay." He began to head down the front porch and over to his car, but he froze, quickly turning around. "Oh, and Elsa? Thank you, for coming to help me. You've kind of helped me realize how stupid I was…for—yeah… You know what I mean."

She meekly grinned at him. "You shouldn't be thanking me—you should be thanking Rapunzel—it was her who told me to go help you," she stated nonchalantly, turning towards her door and slipping out the hidden key under the mat. Normally they didn't have a key there, or anywhere for this matter, because she and Anna normally had their own keys with them. But because Kai and Gerda knew that they didn't have a key on them, they had slipped one under there. Only on days when they knew Anna or Elsa needed a key did they place a key there under the doormat.

"Well, goodnight, Elsa," Flynn called out to her just before he got inside his car.

She turned and waved, watching as he pulled his sleek car out of the driveway, driving off. Sighing, she slowly unlocked the door, pausing as she placed her hand on the door handle. Hesitantly, she turned her head and peered around her empty neighborhood. A chill spread throughout her body like a virus, and she snapped her head towards the direction she suddenly heard what sounded like a twig snapping. Breathing silently, feeling her heartbeat pulse, she froze as she stared at the door. Blinking, she opened the door and stepped inside, making sure she locked the door right after her.

She asked Gerda and Kai to stay on the lookout for Anna, before she locked herself in her room and got ready for bed.

* * *

**Can I just say that this morning, I got a charlie's horse, and I just about died. My calf is still sore from it.**

**Oh, and I know, I suck at trying to make up lyrics to songs. It was so hard for me to come up with something for that tease song. So, just in case you guys don't know the playground song "K-I-S-S-I-N-G" (yeah, I looked this stuff up - I had no clue that little tease song had an actual name and classification! Plus I knew the song had some other longer parts, and I wasn't sure how they went...you know, the "First comes love" or whatever it is part and so forth), that's what the tune of my little song is.**

**Okay, anyways...here are the dresses that I had in mind for Elsa and Rapunzel:**

**For Elsa, you can either type into Google images: Shopruche Clara Wedding Dress, and the first image that appears is the dress I had in mind. Or you could go to the actual website for Shopruche and go to wedding dresses and find the dress titled Clara.**

**Okay, and I know this is supposed to be a wedding dress, but I really, really love the dress and find it so gorgeous, and I think it can be worn to other special events as well, other than just a wedding.**

**For her shoes, type in: Christian Louboutin Body Strass Jeweled Pumps. You'll find images such as Katy Perry wearing them, or just the actual shoe itself.**

**These shoes I like as well. They look nice.**

**For Rapunzel, you can either type in: Light purple ankle length silk like satin straps prom dress, and the first few dresses that pop up on that girl should be what I had in mind. And the shoes the girl is wearing are the ones that I had in mind for Rapunzel to wear.**

**I think that's it... **

**Thank you guys so much for the reviews! And thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**Oh, and I still have big plans on how I will have Elsa meet Jack, again. So don't worry. It will come soon. ;D**


	16. The Announcement

It was around 1A.M. when Anna suddenly pounded on Elsa's door, insisting this was an emergency and that they needed to talk. Elsa, just barely falling asleep, instantly snapped straight up in bed, her heart pounding intensely from the suddenly noise.

"ELSA! I _NEED _TO TALK TO YOU! HURRY!" The door handle rattled and shook like someone were trying to break in. "I'M _DYING_ OUT HERE!"

Elsa heard a loud _thud _against her door, and she rolled her eyes. What was she thinking? Of course it was just her sister…of course it wasn't anyone else… Who was she expecting anyway? The Bogey Man? As if… Rubbing her eyes, she slowly dragged her slim legs over the edge of her bed like there were dragging weights and walked to the door. Pausing, she heaved out a sigh, unlocking the door and opening it as she began saying, "Anna, what are you—" but she got cut off as Anna suddenly came tumbling in. Apparently her sister had decided it was a good idea to lean against her door-that's probably what that _thud _was from…

"Elsa!" Anna exclaimed with a wide grin, showing no signs of pain from her fall. She was still dressed in her Winter Ball gown, so she must've just barely gotten home.

"Anna, it's—" Elsa glanced at her snowflake clock "—one in the morning! What are you—"

"Whoa! Aren't you freezing in that?!" Anna, completely throwing Elsa's statement out the window, indicated to her white shorts and light blue tank top. "I still don't get how you can wear such minimal clothing in the winter! I mean—girl! It's cold outside! It's sweater weather! The season to snuggle!—the season to have a thousand blankets!—and if your dating someone, well," she giggled. "I'm sure you can figure out the rest. Gah!—I still don't get how you—!" She staggered to a stand, waving her hands all around Elsa's nightwear.

Elsa merely cocked an eyebrow, crossing her arms. "Anna, I've been wearing this attire since forever. I had this same type of nightwear last year, the year before it, and the year before that year, and so forth. Have you really not noticed all this time…?" She was fairly positive that her little sister already knew this… Was she drunk or something?

"No, no—I know, it's just—oh, I'm sorry!—I'm just so frantic and giddy right now! I—I think—wait, no… Tonight has just been so hectic! Like, you don't even know! Well, actually you do know because you were there… But I'm just so…I'm just so…oh I don't know!" she hyperventilated. "I need some fresh air! Is it getting hot in here? I think it's getting hot in here," she treaded her way over to the large, white-framed bay window that was parallel to Elsa's bed. She instantly turned on her heel, finding that the window was already open. Flailing her arms up, she did a free fall on Elsa's bed, back first. "_Ugh!_ _Why me?!" _she muffled into a white, square pillow.

Rubbing her right arm, Elsa slowly approached her sister, closing the door softly on her way over. "Umm…do you care explaining what the big fuss is about…?" she hesitantly asked. She still wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone ever since that _uplifting _trip down Memory Lane, but it sounded like her sister needed her at the moment. But then again, Anna was probably exaggerating the actual situation like she has a tendency to do, so the panic was probably just over something small and simple in reality.

Anna threw the pillow off of her face, rolling over so she was on her stomach. "Okay, lemme just tell you everything that pretty much just barely happened over the last, oh, I don't know—_hour_, or so…" She huffed, closing her eyes peacefully before reopening them with a calm exterior.

Elsa timidly sat on the edge of her bed, listening silently as her sister began telling her about what happened after she had stopped the blonde, Kristoff, from towing herself off to who knows where, saying that he wouldn't stop gawking at her in disbelief that she went to Disney High School. According to Anna, Kristoff still seemed perplexed after the billionth time she had confirmed which school she went to.

"I mean, _duh!_—what else would I be doing there at the Winter Ball?" she had sneered. "Is his brain the size of a pea or something? Anyways…" She continued on with how the blonde had escorted her out, telling her that she should go, and that things wouldn't get too "pretty," as he had put it. She clearly looked annoyed that he had practically kicked her out.

"And so I stormed outside into the freezing cold, only to find that the whole school was driving off, so I went to where Hercules had parked his car, and as it turned out: oh! He left me!—and I'm sure it wasn't intentional…but really? He left me?! I was his stinking _date! _I think he does have the responsibility to take me _home _at least! Don't you think? I think so—he was the one that picked me up! This was one of those times where it would've been really, really nice to have a car and to have driven there myself. Ugh! I still can't believe he _left _me! Him! Of all people! He _left _me! And I've already forgiven him, I'm not mad or anything—it's just—I can't believe it. But I'm sure he just forgot and his mind was in a panic, and that this coming Monday, he'll be saying sorry over and over again until my ear blows off, ha—don't even worry about it…

"But anyways, moving on… So there I was, standing there in the parking lot, trying to figure out how or who I could get a ride with, and, oh, what do ya know? I couldn't find anyone to get a flipping ride with! I would've tried to call here and ask for a ride, but I had left my cell phone on my bed, so that option was dead before it even got to live. Yeah, I know—_way to go, Anna_—" she shaped her hand into a gun and shot it at her head.

"Wait, so," Elsa began tentatively, "how exactly did you get here?" She was beginning to fear the answer a little… Yes, she was glad that her sister got home safely…but what if the person who had taken her home was someone dangerous? A stalker? Someone from her past? Or maybe even Kristoff, of all people?

"Oh, I'm getting to that, don't worry, because that's where everything gets exciting! That's the good part!"

"It is?" Elsa spoke through gritted teeth, hardly believing this to be true.

"Uh-huh! Yup! So!—because I had no idea and no clue of what else to do, I came down to my own conclusions that a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!"

"Please don't tell me you hijacked someone's car or did anything inappropriate…" Elsa muttered under her breath.

"_NO!_" Anna defiantly rejected. "I began to _walk home!_" she declared.

"What?! Anna, that's dangerous! What were you thinking?! I think I'd rather have you hijack someone's car rather than get into some unavoidable cause that may haunt you for the rest of your life!"

"Ah!—ah!—ah!—let me _finish!_"

Elsa raised her eyebrows, pressing her sister to continue on with her eyes.

Anna sighed soothingly to herself. "So…I start to walk home, and clearly I'm miserable and freezing cold, and—this is the best part!" she squealed, getting up quickly so she was sitting on her knees before she clapped excitedly like a child. "A car pulls over a little ways up ahead of me—and this car looks extremely nice and like a mighty fine ride, might I add—and, you know, as I'm walking, I'm starting to freak out, thinking, 'Oh my gosh! This guy is going to kidnap me!' But I keep my cool because, well how awkward would that be if he was just pulling over to, I don't know, take a break from driving? Or maybe it wasn't even a 'he,' and was a 'she' instead. But still, I was freaking out, despite my lame attempts at trying to comfort myself—oh, and you know what was the worst thought?—it was the fact that this could've possibly been the perfect opportune moment for me to try out that pepper spray Gerda had gotten us not too long ago!

"Gah!—I've been _dying _to try it out! I just want to give it a test spray…but I just can't bring myself to do that because then I'd be wasting some pepper spray on thin air, and—" she shook her head— "I'm rambling, sorry. I'm just so excited to tell you the best part! Okay, so there I am, walking along, trying to look as normal as possible, and my heart is pounding—like it's about ready to pop right out of my chest!—and as I'm nearing the car, I see this figure get out of the driver's door, and now I'm really freaking out, and as this guy is nearing me, I soon realize it's…"

Elsa began to purse her lips. _Please don't say Kristoff or anyone from DreamWorks High...oh, and especially not Michael… _She was actually okay with it being Kristoff…but just the idea that someone from DreamWorks High would know their location to their house, well…what if Michael were to come around and eventually come to know of this critical piece of information? That'd be really bad…

"Hans!" Anna cheered happily.

Immediately Elsa's demeanor changed and her jaw just about dropped down to the ground. _That was worse!_

"I know, right?!" Anna joyfully clapped.

Elsa began to shake her head. _No, no, no, no, no! I take that back!_ her mind panicked._ Please be Kristoff! Please be Kristoff! _It could've been anybody else that picked her sister up—she didn't care! It just couldn't be, ugh, _Hans…_

She stared at her sister's ecstatic expression. "Wait, are you serious?" She just had to make sure. Maybe she heard wrong…? Oh she hoped that was so.

"Yes! I'm serious! _The_ Hans Westerguard picked me up! Isn't he wonderful?!" Anna dreamily dazed, grabbing a pillow and hugging it.

Elsa couldn't help but look mortified. With a lot of effort, she forced through a grim smile and barely managed to succeed. "Oh…yay…" _Great_. Now he knew where they lived. _Joy... _She sighed through her nose, suddenly catching notice on how much her sister was getting into snuggling with her poor white pillow. Oh dear…now she really didn't want to know what Anna was imagining. She slowly pulled her gaze away, just a little disgusted. Why didn't anyone see how horrible of a person Hans was?! He was a nightmare! He wasn't even close to being considered dreamy! If anyone was dreamy it was… Her mind was blank. It was just anyone except Hans. Elsa bit her lower lip, shaking her head at her sister's behavior before glancing at the time; her eyes widened to the size of the moon. It was already 2A.M.?

She looked back to her sister. She better do something before something bad happened to her poor pillow, as well as get to bed too. She was already having a hard time falling asleep with the incident that happened earlier….and now Hans with Anna would be added to her sleeping problems too? Elsa closed her eyes as she began to rub her temples out of stress.

"Oh, I'm sorry! You're tired, aren't you? I should be going now anyways, so," Anna gently set the white, deformed pillow down as she got off of the bed and headed towards the door, "goodnight." She headed out the door, but then quickly poked her head back in. "Thanks for, you know, listening. See you in the morning. Happy sleeping!" she called as she began heading down the hallway to her room.

Elsa stared at her slightly opened door. After a few minutes had passed by of her just staring at her door, she slowly got up and closed it. Sighing, she leaned her back against the door, running her hands through her wavy, soft hair. First Michael, and now, Hans….what was next? Jack Frost would show up at her doorstep with a knife in hand? She frowned at this thought. Now where did that come from? It was definitely most unlikely that he would…yeah… She didn't even want to bother to go into depth with where that thought came from.

Lightly shaking her head, she heaved herself to a standing position and walked over to her bed, feeling the cool fresh air from outside hug at her skin. She stared at the white pillow that was deformed; pursing her lips, she fluffed the pillow back to its original state before crawling back onto her bed.

.

At about 7A.M., Sunday morning, Elsa received an urgent phone call from Rapunzel. She wanted to know everything that happened and if Flynn was okay. It took her a while, but Elsa did manage to calm things over with her frantic friend. She told her everything that happened—everything except that _one _incident… Rapunzel didn't need to know that. She didn't need Rapunzel to worry about her. She was perfectly fine. Everything was going to be fine.

As they continued talking, Rapunzel explained to her that she wanted to stay, but her date wanted to go and she wasn't sure who she'd get a ride with, so she left. She apologized over and over again for leaving, but Elsa kept telling her everything was okay. _I'd rather you not witness or know what happened,_ she couldn't help but think, each time Rapunzel would burst out into an apology like a ticking time bomb.

Elsa told her about what happened with Anna, after hearing that familiar statement of how Rapunzel wasn't sure of who she'd get a ride with. Rapunzel's reaction to what happened with Anna only made Elsa frown and slap her hand to her forehead as she lay on her bed. When she could no longer take it, hearing Rapunzel gush and squeal about how "sweet" Hans was, Elsa found and excuse to say goodbye, and that was the end of their phone call. For the rest of the day, she stayed inside her room, only coming out when she needed to. For the most part, all she did was sleep, actually, since she didn't fall asleep until it was 6:32A.M. that morning.

The whole time last night, she kept staring at her open window, out of fear that she'd see something she really didn't want to see. Her mind wouldn't stop playing tricks on her, and she got paranoid at the idea that as soon as she'd close her eyes, an unwanted face would peer through her window and just stare at her with hungry eyes—or worse, a shadow would come through her window... And the fact that her ears kept getting sensitive to every single _crush _and _snap _she'd hear outside didn't make her feel any safer.

True, she could've easily closed the window and closed the drapes…but she liked having her window open. She loved the coolness she felt from the chilled winter air. It was almost like a drug to her—she was so addicted to it she just couldn't stand to _not _go through with one night where her window would be shut. That was her only comfort, after all. She needed to feel the cold. It was like a dark lullaby that would lure her to sleep at night.

It wasn't long until Elsa woke up from her long slumber and found herself in the dark once again. When she checked her cell phone to see the time and date, it was 5A.M., Monday morning. She sighed, closing her eyes, but quickly she snapped them open. She had ice skating practice. She nearly forgot. With that thought in mind, she began preparing herself to head over to the indoor skating rink. Her time practicing went by fairly quickly, it felt like. It wasn't long until she found herself heading over to her school. It was just another day, and another Monday…

.

"_Good morning, students of Disney High, I, uh, hope you've had a great Monday morning so far. Now, I'm sure you all know why I'm here talking to you. It has come to my knowledge that some sort of riot happened over the past few days. Boys and girls, I know what has happened, and I'm sorry to hear about the events that went down, Saturday night. I know a lot of you are upset…"_

Scattered murmurs could be heard throughout the math classroom, along with several snickers and mockeries. Ms. Faux stood up from her seat at her desk, eyeing the students, causing them to silence. Elsa glanced over to where Rapunzel sat with curious eyes; the brunette returned the same look. There was totally going to be a "but" coming up next…

_"…but, students, it has also come to my notice that some of your fellow students have acted rashly, and that their actions were based off of the fact that someone else ruined your Winter Ball, or for the other school that is having this same speech at this moment now, their actions they did caused them to have karma. Students—and I'm not just speaking to the culprits—I'm speaking to everyone in general—just because someone else has ruined your school dance doesn't mean you've should go ruin it for them as well…"_

Jack crossed his arms, leaning his back against his seat. Was it really necessary that their principal had to go on and drag out his main point? He knew he would get a lecture and that there would be a small speech from the principal to the whole school—he just didn't know that it'd be like _this…_ He sighed, rolling his eyes over to where Kristoff sat at the back of the room. He could already imagine the look on the faces of the rest of the baseball team: they were bored out of their minds and annoyed.

When Kristoff made eye contact with Jack, he grimly smiled. Sighing, Jack faced forward, running his hand through his starlight hair. _Consequences, consequences…_

_ "Now look at the consequences and results: both our school and DreamWorks High end with a terrible Winter Ball, and everyone isn't happy…"_

"And you can thank Mr. Hans Westergaurd for that," Elsa muttered bitterly as she scanned over her completed homework they were given over the weekend.

_"…but students, I have spoken with my very good friend, the principal of Disney High, and we have both come to a few agreements. We were once rivals as well, but now we're the best of friends, and we've figured that in order for our schools to end this war that has been going on, we need to handle it like we were once handled. We are going to unite our schools and come to a settled agreement…"_

This caught his attention. Jack flickered his azure blue eyes up at the speakers to the intercom, leaning forward, clasping his hands together with a look of interest. Now this was new…

_"…and students, it's fine that you still are competitive against each other—we don't expect you all to suddenly have compassion for every single person you have once strongly disliked, and may probably continue on still disliking. That's your choice, and not ours. It's natural to make enemies, but it is not natural to show violence and attack each other like terrorists. All we ask is that you students don't ever create such an act of impetuousness ever again and that you can all come to a mutual, acceptable agreement towards one another..._

_ "And the proposal both me and the principal of DreamWorks High have is this: we have both agreed to give you all one more chance at rising from the ashes from your loss and disaster of the Winter Ball. You are all invited to come to our new event, The _Charme _Masquerade Ball!"_

Elsa's pencil lead broke as she was scribbling her name down on her homework. What? She quickly glanced around at her classmate's smiling faces just to confirm if she had heard right. They were going to have a masquerade ball?—moreover, with _DreamWorks High?! _Was that really a good idea? She forced a smile when she met eyes with Rapunzel's excited ones.

_"Now, with this new dance event, there are a few things first that I have to go over with you. First off, this isn't just your typical, fancy-dressed school dance. In your upcoming first period classes, all teachers with a class period will have a box of some sort to carry a bunch of slips that have character names and animals on it, and each and every student will draw out a slip. (Teachers, we will discuss this further after school when we have our meeting.)_

_ "Now students, these slips will have what you dress up as. If you don't want to dress up as what you receive, that's fine and you can dress up as something else—but I highly recommend you dress up as that personage, for me and the principal of Disney High have a surprise, which will be announced at the night of The _Charme _Masquerade Ball…"_

Jack snickered at the shrilling sound of female voices, gasping and excitedly saying, "They're probably going to give awards to those who are best dressed! Oh how I've always wanted to go to a masquerade ball!" He rolled his eyes. A small lopsided grin perked up on his face, though. To say he wasn't thrilled about this news would be a bit of a white lie.

Kristoff suddenly sneaked his way up to the empty seat behind Jack, tapping him on the shoulder. "So maybe the fact that we repaid Disney High wasn't such a bad idea after all. Who knew, huh? You really did it this time, Frost," the blonde grinned, shaking his shoulder out of congrats.

_"The next thing is that I need you to understand that this dance is for everyone that goes to DreamWorks High and Disney High; it's not for just one of the following schools specifically. So that means no fighting. Don't start up a fight, boys and girls. Please, don't ruin the night for other people. If you need to take a breather, step outside. This event is supposed to be for your enjoyment and for you to have fun and possibly make new friends. It's almost like a treaty, if you really must think that way. If anything goes wrong, then all dances for the rest of the year will be canceled. That will be your punishment. Also, you aren't required to get asked to this dance, as I'm sure you've probably already figured this out, considering the slips that you will eventually draw."_

Elsa let out a sigh, slouching in her seat. Oh good, so that meant she had a choice, right? She wasn't required to go. Wonderful. It was settled: she wasn't going to go. She had better things to worry about anyway…plus it was safer this way. If this masquerade ball meant that it was both people from her school and people from DreamWorks High that were invited, then she didn't want to risk it—she didn't want to risk being seen by Michael, or any other familiar face she may come across, even though she'd probably not recognize them, due to their masks. But still. She shouldn't test her luck.

After all, masquerades were the best ways to hide your face. You could be anyone you wanted to be. No one would know who you are—or, at least no one should know who you are. With masks, you could hide your face and no one would know who you are—you may just get away in a crowd of cops when you were the most wanted person in the world for crimes untold, for they were too horrible to be released to the public.

_"I have one more thing to discuss to you all, before I let you resume your classes (teachers, I apologize for any time that has been taken away). Now this is very important. These upcoming weeks, some of you will be called down to speak with your counselor, and it's not because you guys are in trouble. While I was discussing things over with the principal of Disney High, we decided that in order for each of us to bond better, and learn to understand each other, is if we actually spend time with one another. So, what's going to happen is that by the beginning of next month, students from our school will be swapped out with students form Disney High. We will be taking about half and half from each other. So, yes, that means some of you will be transferring to Disney High…"_

Almost everyone gasped at this. Jack simply allowed his mouth to slightly gape open as he glanced over at Kristoff.

"_Seniors, we have decided that we'd let you stay and finish the end of the year here, for this is your last year. But Juniors and Sophomores, some of you will be transferring out with students from DreamWorks High. Now I know that some of you will be upset, but I've already discussed things over with the parents of those who will be transferring. Now please understand that this is all for your benefit and learning, and you'll come to realize the good out of this. The date and place for The _Charme _Masquerade Ball will be released these upcoming days and thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day."_

As soon as the intercom turned off, the volume in Elsa's classroom amplified. Everyone was talking about the things that were said. Rapunzel came over beside Elsa with a bewildered expression, sharing the same face as anybody else who heard the announcement.

"Wow, can you believe it?" she gasped, slowly shaking her head. "Man, am I glad that we're seniors! I just feel bad for those unfortunate souls that get picked…wonder who they'll be…"

"Yeah," Elsa softly nodded her head.

"Oh, and this masquerade ball—!" Rapunzel had begun, but got cut off by their teacher.

"Alright, class—quiet!—and go back to your seats! You can save your excitement for later," Ms. Faux huffed. "Right now, pass in your homework and—oh! How exciting! We get to start a new unit today!"

The whole class hushed, rolling their eyes, but soft whispers and murmurs could still be heard throughout the class. Elsa sighed, but froze as she was struck with realization. _Did that mean Anna could possibly get transferred?_

* * *

**Yay! Another chapter! Okay, so last time I forgot to say this, but the Michael Cedric character dude, his appearance is supposed to be that bodyguard for the Duke-Weselton guy; he's the one without the mustache. :) And I do have this grand explanation for how I got his name...but I won't say it here. If you were really interested, you could just PM me, or...I don't know. Maybe I will eventually explain if you all really wanted to know.**

**Sorry if this chapter isn't my best quality work. I'm dead tired right now, but I just had to finish this chapter for you guys. I hope you all enjoyed it still.**

**Oh, and sorry for not updating on Wednesday; this week I've been really busy. Also, this week I'll only be able to post this chapter...sorry! I'm going to be away from my PC for these next few days, so I won't be able to type. Next week, expect Wednesday, though, as usual. :D**

**Again, thank you guys so much for the reviews! I love you all! You're all so, so sweet! I really do appreciate the time you guys take reviewing, and of course reading this. :)**


	17. Unexpected

**I'm sorry for my absence with updating. I've been busy with school. Lovely, right?**

**Anyways, I'm going to apologize in advance right now: I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little rushed. I kind of got stuck with what I wanted to happen next, and I felt like I'd be rushing this story if I skipped right to the masquerade ball. I hope this chapter isn't terrible and flows along with the story at least okay to some degree.**

* * *

"Oh my—Elsa! What do I do?!"

People passing in the hallways looked to the two sisters. Elsa glanced around, biting her lower lip. If she knew how badly her sister was taking this, she wouldn't have approached her and would've saved this conversation for when they got home…

"Anna, I'm sure you'll—"

"What if I get transferred?! This isn't fair! I can't transfer over to DreamWorks High!" Anna cut in.

"—be fine…" She ended, allowing her shoulders to sag down. Anna was clearly in no mood to listen to her.

"What do I do?!"

Elsa took a surveillance of their surroundings. They were still being watched like they were on some soap opera…and that wasn't good. She didn't need to be the star or co-star, or whatever it was she was. She's had enough limelight on her. As her eyes roamed round the hallway nervously, she then spotted the restrooms not too far behind her frantic sister, and instantly she spun her sister around and pushed her into the girls' restroom, speaking through her teeth, "Do you think you could…you know…tone it down a bit…?"

As soon as she had successfully changed their setting to something a little more private and isolated, her sister exploded.

"No! Elsa!" Anna cried, spinning around to face her sister, grabbing her two pigtail braids and pulling on them. "How can I 'tone down' when I have this sort of news choking my brain? Ugh! You're so lucky! You don't even know how I'm feeling! Ah! What do I do?! I'm totally going to be on that list they have! They're going to transfer me! And there's nothing that either of us can do!"

"Anna!" Elsa grabbed a hold of her sister's shoulders. She couldn't take it anymore. "_Calm down_," she soothed firmly. "You aren't going to get transferred," she spoke slowly. "Re…lax… Okay? Everything will be alright." There was a moment of silence as her words settled in. She stared at her sister hopefully, and soon after realizing how tight she was gripping onto her sister, she timidly let go, drawing her hands back and crossing her arms close to her stomach.

"How do you know? How?—Elsa, how can you be so sure? I—I don't know what I'm going to do! I worked so hard to make it on the cheer team—I just started as a sophomore here! How can they do this to me? This isn't…" Anna shook her head. "Elsa, what am I supposed to do if I do get transferred? What if they call me down to meet with my counselor, and as things turn out, I really am going to have to transfer? I... That means I have to start all over—and not that I don't mind being able to have a fresh new start—but this is DreamWorks High. I can't start over there. No one transferring from Disney High over to DreamWorks High will have a fresh new start."

"Well, Anna, no one from DreamWorks High transferring over here will have a fresh new start either…" Elsa softly said, dropping her gaze.

"Yeah, but…"

The bell suddenly rang, indicating lunch was now over.

Anna clamped her mouth shut, staring at Elsa with distressed eyes.

Barely glancing up and able to keep eye contact with her sister, Elsa flashed her eyes back to the ground. "You should...you should probably get to class…"

"Yeah…." Anna softly muttered, turning towards the mirror to fix her appearance quickly.

Elsa pursed her lips. What more was she supposed to say? She couldn't guarantee Anna's safe stay here at Disney High. She heard Anna sigh and stared at the ground as she saw what she could see of her sister walk away. "Anna, wait," she called out. She needed to say at least _something _that settled their conversation nicely… When her sister stopped and turned to face her, she gritted her teeth. But then again, maybe she didn't need to say anything at all. Maybe it was best if she kept her mouth shut. Ugh!—what was she going to say? There wasn't anything she could do... "Just…don't worry. You'll be fine. I promise."

Sighing, Anna softly nodded her head before disappearing out of sight.

Blinking, Elsa slowly turned away. "'I promise'?" she muttered lowly. She furrowed her eyebrows. What was she thinking? What if her sister really was going to get transferred? She couldn't just stroll on into the principal's office and ask him to simply not have Anna transfer, expecting him to grant her her wish. It wasn't that easy.

Shaking her head, she readjusted her backpack on her shoulders and heading on her way out of the bathroom. She'd just have to wish on her lucky stars that Anna wasn't picked as one of the students to transfer, because if she was picked, that meant she had lied and the promise she made would be broken. She really should've watched her tongue… Whatever happened to think before you speak? But just before she left, she stopped, and slowly peeked over at her reflection. Clenching her teeth, she quickly tore her gaze away and quickly ushered herself out.

.

Taking in a deep breath, she exhaled, her warm breath fogging up into a small cloud. Opening her eyes, she stepped out onto the frozen lake. Wobbling a little, she quickly caught her balance and slowly glided on the thick, marine blue ice. It felt like the blades to her white skate shoes were dragging and carving deeply into the ice—almost as if her shoes were trying to hold her back. By the time she had finally made her way to the center, she got into her position she normally started off with for her solo, and began to play the music that was now ingrained into her head.

After so many mornings of having to listen to the music to her solo, each and every note of every instrument from the song recorded itself into her head and now, as if there were a CD in her head, she could actually play the soundtrack to her solo perfectly without actually having to listen to it. All she needed was her memory, and she could skate without the music.

As she counted the notes up to the spot where she would begin her solo, she heard a crackling sound. Opening her eyes with furrowed eyebrows, her eyes widened in horror as she realized where the crackling noise was coming from. The ice beneath her was starting to crack…and it was breaking fast—the cracks were spreading like a virus. Her breathing became heavy and large breaths of air escaped her mouth. She flashed her eyes all around the webbing cracks beneath her. She was smack right in the middle of the origin of where the cracks seemed to be coming from.

Her heart skipped a beat as she watched one of the cracks in sight quickly carve through the ice. And that's when something flashed in her eyes. A lot of things were flashing in her eyes like a quick flash of lightning. She squinted her eyes against the bright lights as she raised her gaze, and soon enough she found herself in the center of some sort of ice skating stadium. The flashings were from cameras. People were taking pictures of her…why…? Where did they even come from? Behind the photographers she found millions and millions of people all around her, sitting in their seats. She could hear cheering…or maybe it was just screaming…. She couldn't tell—all she knew was that she was in the center of and ice skating rink and people were shouting and taking pictures of her.

It was already time for her big competition? But she wasn't even ready! No! She wasn't ready yet! She needed more time…time…time… Whatever happened to her time? Just a few seconds ago, she could've sworn she had at least a good five months left to go before her competition. Her heart pounded hard against her chest, and she brought her arm up to shield her eyes from the flashing lights all around her. She suddenly heard the ice beneath her begin to crackle some more.

And before she knew it, the ice beneath her fully gave out and broke, and she fell straight through the shattered hole. Instantly she felt something thick all around her and she felt like she couldn't breathe. She had fallen into the lake's ice cold water, but she couldn't feel the cold. It felt normal.

Turning her head here and there, all she could see was a dark, deep blue abyss, like the night blue sky, except there were no stars. It was just a dark, blank, empty space that completely surrounded her. Looking up, the hole she fell through was no longer there. It was just another dark, empty space of water. Quickly her mind went into panic mode. How was she supposed to get out of this water? She was going to _drown! _There was no way out! What was she going to do?!

She waved her arms around in the thick water as she kicked her legs. Instantly her she dropped her gaze down to her feet. All she could see was the same thing she's been seeing all around her: a blank, dark, empty abyss. What if some sort of shark came up with its jaws wide open? What kind of creatures were in this water with her? Almost instantly as these thoughts came flooding into her head, she tucked in her knees as close as she could to her chest in fear that something she didn't want to see would grab them. She was now slowly falling deeper into the water. She tried to wave her arms faster against the water, but that didn't do anything for her. Her arms were growing weak and sore, and she soon would no longer be able to hold her breath.

When she could no longer hold her breath, the moment she took in a breath, she began to quickly rise to a surface, and she was violently coughing up water. She could feel something hard pressing against her back, and now there was a bright white light shining in her face. As she choked up some more water, she rolled over and pressed herself up. She could feel her skating dress stick to her skin like a suction cup, and she still felt like she was in water…but she wasn't.

As she staggered to a stand, the light above her began to flicker, quickly drawing her gaze towards it. She blinked in astonishment. The light was from the moon, and trees were waving against it…wait, but where was the wind? She couldn't feel any wind. She then heard a twig snapping. She flashed her gaze towards the source, seeing nothing. She then flashed her eyes another direction, too, finding nothing. She swallowed, her throat slightly stinging, for it hadn't quite recovered from her choking on that water.

She then heard another twig snapping, and she tried to search through the many trees that surrounded her, but she couldn't find anything. It was either too dark or whatever was stepping near her was camouflaged. Pursing her dry lips, she shuffled backwards, turning around, ready to make a run for it; however, in the process she felt something scrape against her right arm and ribcage. She gasped when she felt the sudden stinging pain.

Blinking, she brought her gaze over to her arm and her ribcage. Her eyes widened and she just about had a heart attack. Thick, crimson liquid was quickly gushing out of her arm and ribcage—

Elsa's eyes flashed open.

Inhaling deeply, she let out a shaky breath. "It was just a dream," she whispered. It was just a dream…well, more like a _nightmare. _Swallowing, she found that her throat was dry. Taking in another deep breath, she turned in her bed onto her back, suddenly feeling a small buzzing sting in her arm and ribcage… Wait…was it really a dream? She clenched her teeth. No…she didn't want to look. She didn't want to see—Elsa quickly turned her head over to her bare arm. There was just one thin line of red on her arm.

She let out a relieved breath. _It wasn't gushing blood…_ She brought her left hand up to her forehead, suddenly freezing up. Wait….but where did that scratch come from? She didn't remember ever getting that….

But just as quickly as she forgot, her memories came flooding back into her head, reminding her of the incident that happened earlier. As she brushed her fingertips against the long, but thin, small cut, she then slowly brought her hand down to the bottom of her white tank top and lifted it up to reveal her fair skin. When she had lifted her tank top past her ribcage, she stopped and dropped her gaze, finding three more of those long, thin, small cuts right along her right side of her ribcage. She lightly brushed her fingers against the cuts, feeling where it ended from her back and wrapped around her side, starting in the front.

Right after school had ended and she had left to go practice her ice skating on the lake, as she was walking up the hill when she was done, she tripped, and inconveniently enough, there just so happened to be a tree right beside her with its branches reaching right out towards her as she fell…and she got cut. Her gaze wandered over to where her ice skating practice dress was, laying on top of her vanity desk. And in the process, her practice dress got ripped as well… Now she had to go get a new one—she really liked that one that she had…. Or maybe she could ask Gerda to sew it back up?

Sighing, she ran her hands through her silky soft hair. Eventually she'd have to get a new practice dress. She suddenly heard that same cracking noise she heard in her dream…and it was coming from outside. Blinking, she slid off of her bed, pulling her tank top back down as she headed over to her open window. She slowed her walking down as she heard another crackling noise. When she gazed out of her window, she found nothing. She couldn't see anything in the lit streets of her neighborhood, in her yard, or anywhere else.

She heard another _crunch, _but she still didn't catch sight of anything. After a while of just staring and listening, she pursed her lips, and took a step back from her window. She then suddenly heard another crunch, followed by a few more. Maybe she should go check outside and see for herself from their front door if she could see anything? She shook her head abruptly. No, no, no…there was no way she was going to go out there by herself. She'd just have to wait until it was morning—she then heard a few more _crunches_.

Okay, no—she had to figure out where that noise was coming from. There was no way she was going to sleep in comfort if she didn't know where that crunching noise was coming from. With that thought in mind, she made her way out of her room, down the stairs, and to the large, wooden front door. By the time she had her ankle snow boots on and had her hand ready to open the door, she froze. What if there was some creeper out there? Some mass murderer? Someone dangerous…?

Elsa pursed her lips. "Oh, but I have to know," she wailed quietly, her eyes suddenly catching sight of the metal, white mosaic umbrella stand beside the door. She grabbed the navy blue umbrella, tapping it against the palm of her hand. She pursed her lips. Well, this was better than nothing. She fixed her gaze at the large front door. Now that she was armed, she should be perfectly capable of handling herself out there in the real world. After all, she was almost an adult, and she needed to learn how to fend for herself…so this was good practice for her…right? Right….

Taking in a deep breath, she reached her hand out to the door handle. Exhaling, she quickly opened the door (if she opened it slowly, she'd probably never get the door open because she was too scared); she felt that opening the door fast wouldn't give the person that may be out there any time to react and she'd have the upper hand—that is, of course, if there actually was a person out there.

Instantly a cool breeze came flowing in, sending a chill up her spine. Pursing her lips as she stared at the glittering front yard, she cautiously stepped outside the safety of her house, closing the door after her. Taking a quick evaluation of her surroundings, with her umbrella out in front of her, she slowly continued to step forward. She stepped down the porch steps, and continued to go straight, stepping on the crisp snow. It made a loud _crunch_, just like the one she had heard from up in her bedroom. As she continued to step forward, she suddenly stopped, suddenly realizing something. She heard a soft _crunch _behind her, and then another one, and then it stopped.

Elsa's heart raced. Someone was behind her…wasn't there? She could feel butterflies in her stomach as her adrenaline kicked in. Taking in a deep breath from the fresh, cool, icy air, readjusting her grip on her umbrella, she swiftly spun around, swinging the umbrella, attacking at….thin air? She blinked. There was no one behind her. She then heard another _crunch, _and she dropped her gaze, sucking in a sharp breath, jumping back a bit at the sight before her.

It wasn't a person…it was a puppy. It was a small, white, fluffy dog.

She blinked, allowing her arms to go limp as she just stared wide-eyed at the dog. The fluffy, white dog was cowering with its ears pulled back. After a moment, the dog finally moved, gently setting a white paw down. The snow crackled and crunched down. Elsa let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. The small dog began to take another step towards her, its paw quickly sinking in to the crisp, deep snow. It began to whine and yelp. Her heart just about dropped.

"No, no, no—shhhhh," she hushed, glancing around her to see if anyone was stirring from the noise. She quickly retraced her steps from her footprints in the snow and quickly made her way beside the dog when its whines got louder. "I-It's okay, you're okay," she timidly reached out her hand. The puppy's cries softened as soon as her hand made contact with its soft fur. She then felt something warm and leathery wipe across her wrist over and over again—it was licking her. She couldn't help but stare in adoration at this.

As she scratched the dog behind its ear, she bent down and sat on her haunches, setting her umbrella down, stroking its fur with her other hand. She then checked its neck, finding no collar. Pursing her lips, she glanced around before gently picking the small, fluffy dog up. Its tail began wagging and it continued to try and lick her some more. She cradled the dog close to her chest, it's cold, frozen-tipped fur brushing softly against her bare skin. Standing up, she grabbed her umbrella before going back inside her house with the small white dog. When she settled down in her bed, the puppy snuggling close beside her, she checked the clock before allowing her eyes to slowly close. It was 2:32A.M.

.

For the next few days that followed, Elsa had created flyers with a photo of the white dog saying she had found the dog, and if anyone recognized the dog as their own, then they could call the number below the photo. She didn't put down a name to call for, for she didn't want people who just so happened to be walking by that knew her to have any sort of way to contact her.

She sighed, staring down at the bundle of flyers she held in her hands. It was now Friday, school was over, and she was out in the city streets, asking as many stores and public places if she could tape and pin these flyers on their pin boards, walls, windows, and anywhere else she knew people would catch glimpse of for at least a second. As much as she thought the puppy was absolutely adorable, she knew it had to have a home it came from, and it was only right that she returned the puppy to its rightful owner…plus she wasn't sure if she'd have the time to care for it. Well, Kai and Gerda could do that, actually—but she didn't want to always have to rely on them and she always felt bad asking them to do things for her. They weren't her slaves. In fact, if they wanted to, they could easily turn herself and Anna into slaves—they were their guardians now.

When Anna first saw the newcomer sleeping on Elsa's bed, she had just about died and made every piece of glass shatter and break at her excited shrills. She was still upset and freaking out about the fact that she could get transferred, but somehow at the sight of something so small and cute, it was like she had never heard the troubling news. And Elsa knew her sister all too well to know that she wasn't _fully _too distressed about the transfer, for her mind was also stuck on something else—for the past few days, this combined masquerade ball that was being held for both schools was the talk of the block. Everyone at Disney High was not only murmuring their frustrations and fears about getting transferred or having to have "obnoxious" newcomers that were from DreamWorks High, but they were also saying their excitements for this dance.

Next week on Monday, they were supposedly finally going to be able to draw out their slips for what they would eventually blindly choose to dress up as. No one still knew exactly what the point of these slips were for and what the big "surprise" was, but they weren't too keen on figuring out what it was; they figured it was something simple and not that great of a surprise.

Even though no one was saying it, the boys and girls were a little excited to be able to go to this masquerade ball and get the chance to possibly "romance" the enemy into a dance with them. Especially the girls—they were all hoping they'd be able to get the chance to meet the heartthrob, Jack Frost; this was the only way they'd be able to freely flirt and crush on whomever they wanted to without breaking the invisible written rules they carried in their back pockets every day they stepped foot inside of Disney High.

Elsa still was planning on not going, although her mind would occasionally fight back with her saying maybe she should go. She wasn't sure why a part of her wanted to even go, though. It was safer back at her house. She didn't want to risk having another event like what happened the night of her school's Winter Ball. Luckily, so far, she hasn't had another encounter with Michael…but it's barely even been a week. There was still time. She knew she was thinking crazy…but at the same time, she knew she wasn't. She knew the rules, and she knew how he played. She knew how everyone she once knew played—but it was just barely. She knew only as much as she needed to to have gotten herself through grade school and middle school.

This was something Anna didn't understand. Anna practically begged Elsa every day to change her mind. She was convinced this dance played a big role in her health or something. She was still clueless to the events that went down that night at the Winter Ball, but that's just how Elsa preferred it. The less she knew and was a part of it, the safer and better off she'd be.

"Hi, can I help you, sweetheart?" the old lady at the cash register asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Elsa snapped her head up and grinned. "Um, yes, actually, I was wondering if it would be alright if I taped this outside the café window?"

The old lady waved her off saying, "Sure, yeah, do whatever you want—_next_…"

Elsa blinked, slowly stepping away as the person behind her brushed shoulders with her rudely. "Oh, um…okay…" She turned away, slowly walking out of the café. She could feel a few straggling eyes trailing after her. She self-consciously began to tug down on her fitted, flared, light gray dress and began to fix her light, baby blue coat. She tuned in her ears on the clicking noise her white, pointy, ankle-strapped heels made, not wanting to hear what they possibly could be whispering about.

She stopped when she found herself at the glass door. Smiling lightly, she pushed the door open, a small _ding_ sounding off as she walked out. Instantly as soon as she stepped out of the café's boundaries, the warmth of it evacuated from her presence, but the sweet cinnamon smell from inside lingered. It was snowing. She placed her palm out, admiring as small snowflakes landed in the palm of her hand. Sighing, she then turned to her left and took a step before turning back towards the cafe's large, glass window. Inside she could see some people staring at her as they sipped out of their mugs and typed at their computers, but she made sure she didn't stare back at them.

Pursing her tinted red lips, for the cold was causing her blood to color her skin, giving her a fleshier color, she placed a flyer against the chilled window at eyelevel, and began to pull out a roll of tape she had brought in her right pocket; in her left pocket she had brought a mini stapler and a small container of white pins. She ripped off a piece of tape, placing it horizontal against the top edge of her flyer, and then carried on ripping another piece of tape, placing it on one of her fingers, before slipping the roll of tape back in her pocket.

Pulling off the piece of tape on her finger, she then carefully began to place it along the bottom edge of her flyer. In the process of doing this, she then caught sight of a reflection behind her own against the glass. The moment her eyes recognized who this reflection belonged to, she froze. Through the reflection she could tell that this person was smiling.

"Elsa, what a pleasant surprise seeing you here. You know, I told my dad about how I ran into you last Saturday. He said to tell you his condolences if we ever were to meet again, for you know, your parents—and now look—here we are, meeting once more."

Elsa turned around when she saw him take a step forward. She swallowed before resolutely saying, "Hello, Michael." She gritted her teeth as he took another casual step towards her.

"You're looking good, Elsa," he lightly chuckled, shaking his head as he brought his gaze from the ground up to her eyes, "you're looking good…"

She stepped back a little, barley managing a sincere smile. "Tell your father my thanks—now, if you'll excuse me—" She turned and began to head over to the restaurant next door. She still had so many more flyers to spread out.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Michael blocked her path. "Is that it?"

Her face contorted. "What do you mean, 'Is that it'?" she cautiously asked. But just as soon as she spoke, she shook her head. She didn't even want to be here standing this close to him. "Actually—I really have to go, so…goodbye, Mr. Cedric." She abruptly began to walk away, but he grabbed hold of her arm. She turned and looked at him with stern eyes. "Michael, what are you doing?"

"Why are you in such a rush? It's only flyers you're handing out for some _dog_—"

"Who said I was in a rush?—I'm just—I just really want to hurry up and get home, that's all—"

"Oh my, gosh…you're afraid? Aren't you? What are you so scared of, Little Elsa?"

She tore her arm out of his grasp. "I said, 'Goodbye.'' And with that stated, she walked away, turning her back on him.

"Well, I'll see you soon, then…and maybe the next time we meet we can actually do a little catching up, you know?" she heard him call out to her. This only made her pick up her pace.

_No…we're not going to see each other again,_ her mind echoed back in response. But for some odd reason, she felt like she was lying to herself. And that scared her.

She couldn't help but peer behind her back at Michael. He was gone. She sucked in a deep breath, suddenly colliding into someone. The flyers in her hand flew and scattered out of her hands like a flock of birds getting scared off.

"Oh, my gosh! I'm so sorry!" she quickly apologized, lightly brushing her hand through her hair and gliding it down to the tip of her French braid. Immediately she bent down to gather her flyers.

"No, it's fine—" a deep, male voice said. The guy she collided into, too, bent down and helped her gather her many flyers. "It's my fault," he stated.

"No, it's mine, I-I-I wasn't watching where I was going..." Elsa shook her head. _And this is why it's important to watch where you're going, _her mind informed her. She pursed her lips.

She heard him chuckle, and she could feel his eyes on her as he paused to straighten out the flyers he had gathered against his knee. She wanted to look up at him, but something was holding her back. She was practically afraid to look up at him. She didn't want to awkwardly make eye-contact she probably shouldn't have made with him, because then she'd feel foolish and stupid for the rest of the day, thinking how she could've handled her situation better. _This is just a boy, _a voice reminded her, _the chances you'll probably ever see him again in your entire life is very low. _She inwardly nodded her head. Right...she'd probably never see this guy again and she'd forget him and he'd forget her and everything would be alright in the end...

By the time the two had gathered all of Elsa's flyers, they both stood, and he handed her the flyers he had gathered.

"Here," he said.

She smiled, taking the bundle of flyers from him, not daring to look up. They would soon depart from each other soon...she was almost there...she only had to keep her eyes down for just a little longer.

"Look up," he suddenly said, as she straightened out the flyers she held in her hand.

Her heart stopped and she froze on the spot, her mind going blank. He completely caught her off guard. "Wait, what?" she timidly laughed, still not looking up at him to make eye-contact. She kept control of her eyes and stared down at her flyers, pretending to still be straightening them out.

"Look at me," he repeated softly, and without a warning, he gently held her chin and lifted it up. His fingers felt cool against her skin, and she felt a chill run down her spin.

Elsa couldn't help but flicker her eyes up at him, immediately after he had touched her. She was surprised at his actions—she couldn't help it. Her breath escaped her lips as soon as she met her eyes with his familiar ice blue ones. Her heart skipped a beat.

"You..." A small lopsided smirk formed on his face, and he slowly dropped his hand.

"You," she quietly echoed back

* * *

**Hmmm...yeah. We have a lovely dream, and a cute dog, and then there's Michael...oh, and then of course this guy at the end. ;D Oh! And guess what? It snowed two days ago! I'm so thrilled!**

**Anyways, thanks so much for reading! And thank you so very much for the reviews! And I'll do my best with updating on time!**


	18. Small Talk

He found it ironic. Right when he was thinking of her, having the hardest time trying to remember what her face even looked like, he bumped into her—the girl who was now standing in front of him now.

For the past few days, Jack has been ripping at his brain, trying to remember the face of that one girl he met two weeks ago, exactly on this day, Friday. It was irritating him to the point of insanity that he couldn't get her face right—that he couldn't remember it. It was all a big blur. All he remembered in his mind was an unclear image of a girl with platinum blonde hair wearing a navy blue dress. He could see her figure standing in front of him perfectly fine, but he couldn't remember her face.

He tried so hard to remember what it looked like. He pieced together the best he could of what her face looked like by using facial features from other girl's faces, but each time his mind created an image, it didn't look right. It was so frustrating. Why did his mind even think of her anyways?

It was on Monday when she suddenly popped up in his mind out of nowhere. It was after school, and he was talking to Lola. And just like everybody else who he passed by that day, she asked him what he thought about the announcement. At that point and time of day, he was a bit tired of everyone asking him that question, but because it was her who was asking, he didn't mind too much. Honestly, he didn't really care too much about the announcement, for it really didn't have that much of an effect on him like it did to those who were in the grades below him. It was definitely out of the ordinary, though, and the idea that some sophomores and juniors would have to transfer schools definitely made him grateful that he was a senior this year. And just like most of the seniors, he really didn't like the idea that there would be new students from the rival school. But he wasn't too bugged as most were.

Really the main words that stuck out to him from the announcement was the fact that they were going to have a _combined_ school dance with Disney High. _How absolutely thrilling. _He got to go to a dance where his "favorite" baseball team would most likely attend to. Well, he did find that it'd be a little more exciting to go to a dance with his school's rivals, so that was the main reason as to why he just had to go. He wasn't too fond with the idea that they'd have to dress up a little more fancier than the normal formal type of attire, but it was all a part of the fun and he knew he'd regret it if he didn't choose to blend in with what every other guy was most likely going to wear. He'd just make sure his outfit still had some class to it and didn't look to ridiculous.

After he had talked to Lola about the announcement and the dance, she asked him something that triggered his memory to bring this girl into mind.

"So, do you have anything exciting to tell me?—you already told me some stuff. Oh!—and is there any girl that you're interested in? Any cute sophomores? Juniors? Seniors?" she had suddenly asked out of the blue. "Like, do you have a girlfriend? And Jackson, don't even bother lying—you know I can read right through you. Who do you think is attractive? I know I never ask you this, but I'm just really curious…"

He was thrown off quite a bit by her last part. Were there any girls he was interested in? He found that one a bit humorous, considering she was the girl he had found he had any real, actual interest in at his school. But then, in that same moment, he thought of this girl, who was standing right in front of him…

When Lola asked him about who he was interested in, he felt like someone had purposefully stuck their leg out and caused him to trip; Lola's never asked him this type of question before (and he was surprised she hadn't asked him this kind of question earlier). When the image of this girl appeared in his mind, he felt like someone had just pushed him off a cliff; he had no clue as to why she even came to his mind.

Now this girl has come up in his mind a few times ever since that snowball fight, but his mind never lingered this long on her. Maybe it was because he had a more vivid image of her face then…he wasn't sure. He did remember hoping he'd meet her again, every time he'd think of her then, but after keeping a secret eye out for her as he walked his school hallways for a few days and observing the streets and shopping malls each time he drove by them, he just came to the final conclusion that the chances he'd ever meet her again were unlikely—like, it was one out of a hundred, that he'd ever meet her again.

So to put things short: Ever since Monday, when this girl came to Jack's mind out of nowhere, her image has never left, and he's been desperately trying to remember what her face looked like. And not that it was critical and absolutely important that he remembered her face…it was just that it was bothering him like none other that he couldn't remember what her _face_ looked like. It was just one of those things that he found irritating and couldn't stand thinking about without getting frustrated with himself. It was that same feeling you get when you know what you were going to say to someone, but then suddenly you forget it it in the blink of an eye, right when you were about to say it, or like when you know the name or answer to something, but you just can't think of it in that moment.

He'd been hoping he'd at least get a glimpse of her face sometime soon, for he was just seconds away from seriously considering to buy a shotgun and blow his head right off (of course, that was just an exaggeration that meant he was just about ready to break his teeth and get some deep gashes on the palms of his hands from grinding his teeth so hard against each other and clenching his hands so tightly). But since a few days had passed since Monday, he had simmered down quite a bit and wasn't so irked anymore, and was now actually accepting the fact that he'd probably never remember what her face looked like.

At first when he ran into her, he didn't pay too much mind to her with detail, only keeping his mind on the fact that he had ran into someone on the streets and caused them to drop what they were holding, all because he wasn't focusing on where he was going. The moment she spoke, though, was when his mind snapped back to reality and he actually took the time to look at his surroundings and look at her. When he helped her gather her papers and he stopped and watched her, it then dawned on him that she looked familiar…that she looked like that blurred image in his mind.

He kept his eyes on her, waiting for her to turn and look at him straight on, but when she didn't do it soon enough, he lost his patience and had to know. His curiosity was eating him away, and he was completely mesmerized by the fact that she could be the girl. So he did what he had to do, just to see her face, and the moment he saw her flawless face and stunning blue eyes, he couldn't help but grin smugly at her alarmed expression. She was the one.

"I believe we've met before," Jack confidently said.

The girl blinked, momentarily dropping her gaze down to the ground, glancing back up at him, before dropping her gaze back down to the ground again. "Um…yeah…yeah, we, uh, have…" She replied back, beginning to twirl the end of her braid with her hand.

He cocked his head as he watched her. It was funny…the faces he tried to compile in his head that resembled her definitely would be considered a disgrace to what her face actually looked like. If he tried to draw her face by that one single memory he had of her, it would be a disaster and just plain humiliating.

"I'm Jack," he introduced himself, debating whether or not he should shake hands with her. Was it necessary? Nah…

She stopped fiddling with her braid, and a small smile came to her face as she snickered lightly.

"What?" Jack leaned over a little so his head height was leveled off with hers, placing his hands in his jacket pockets. He couldn't help but subconsciously grin, seeing her smile. He didn't think his introduction was _that _pathetic…in fact, he was quite sure it was _normal_.

She quickly shot her gaze up at him with wide eyes, slightly jumping back. "Oh—uh, I—sorry," she stuttered, "it's just, well…you know what? It doesn't really matter…it's just something really…uh…stupid…" She began to bite her bottom lip and dropped her gaze, hugging the stack of papers she held close to her chest.

"Okay…" He leaned back, pursing his lips. "Wait, no, really, tell me. It's gonna bug me not knowing," he pressed. He didn't care if it was about how weirdly he must've introduced himself. He just wanted to know.

Timidly glancing over at him, she shook her head. "No, no…it really is, um, stupid…"

Jack stared at her for a moment, crossing his arms. "Try me."

She gave him a look, furrowing her eyebrows questioningly. Dropping her gaze, she lightly smiled. "Okay…um, well, it's just—you kind of don't need to really, uh, introduce yourself because everyone kind of knows your name and who you are…" She pursed her lips.

"Huh," Jack nodded his head. Well, to say he was rarely recognized for his baseball playing skills would be a big fat lie, so she had a point. He's been in a few newspapers and every single ball game his name gets announced more than it probably should… "Right. So you watch baseball then?"

"Umm, occasionally, yeah," she shrugged, still looking down to the ground.

"Okay, alright, uh," he rubbed the back of his neck, "so you probably already know some stuff about me, but I don't know anything about you…." He looked up to the clouded skies where white flakes of snow were falling gently down from. _Her name_. He didn't know her name yet. "What's your name?" he looked down at her.

She paused, glancing up at him. "Sorry, what?"

He chuckled at her clueless face. "What's your name?"

"Oh, right, it's…Elsa," she timidly smiled.

A small smile came on his face in return. He dropped his gaze down to the papers she held in her hand. "So, what are these for?" He indicated to the papers.

"Oh, uh," Elsa handed him one of the papers, "I found a puppy in my front yard, so I'm just trying to see if anyone who may be missing him will claim him."

He took the paper from her and examined it. As he stared at the photo of the cute white puppy, he couldn't help but widen his smile. "You found a Great Pyrenees puppy?!" he exclaimed, handing her back the paper.

She hesitantly took the paper, giving him a look. "Great Pyrenees?"

He lightly laughed, running his hand through his hair. Great. He probably sounded like a nerd. "Uh, yeah, that's the breed—my two best friends both have dogs, and one of them is probably a little more knowledgeable about this kind of stuff way more than he should be—he has a Leonberger—"

Elsa blinked at him.

"—uh, it's a big, brown dog—like really big—anyways, and according to him, the Great Pyrenees is supposed to grow up fairly big and, uh, yeah," he clasped his hands awkwardly. He's never had such a terrible first introduction like this. He should've just kept his mouth shut about what kind of breed this dog was… Ugh. Kristoff…

"Oh," she glanced down at the image on the paper.

Jack inwardly kicked himself over and over again as he crossed his arms. Catching sight of the stack of papers she held in her hand, he suddenly said, "Hey, uh, do you need help with handing those out?"

She looked up at him with surprised eyes. "Help?"

"Uh, yeah—I could pass it around my neighborhood or something like that…"

Elsa stayed quiet for a few seconds as she thought this over.

"Here, just give me half of that," he reached his hand out expectantly.

She blinked at his gesture, hesitantly giving him half of the papers, saying, "Are you sure? I mean, it's fine, really, it's my—"

"Nah, it's fine," he took the small stack, thumbing through all of the papers in a quick movement. "I'm free today and there's no way you'll get through all of these. Plus, it was really me who ran into you and caused you to drop all of your papers…" He looked down at the small stack of papers he held, staring at the image of the dog with a small grin.

"What?" she began. "No—it really was—"

"Me," he cut in quickly, grinning smugly as she clamped her mouth shut.

He stared at her as a small smile gradually made its way onto her lips, and she looked down. Pursing her lips, she then glanced up at him, her gaze quickly dropping back down. Jack tilted his head as she cleared her throat, saying, "Um, well, I better finish handing these out…" She looked up at him with a small smile. "It was, uh, nice properly meeting you, Jack," she quickly said, walking past him.

Jack blinked, sucking in a deep breath, exhaling it out as he looked down at the papers. Instantly he gritted his teeth as a thousand thoughts flooded into his head. Why didn't he ask what school she went to? He had so many opportunities to ask her, and he should've—

"Jack?"

He whipped his head around, looking behind him, spotting Elsa not too far away from where he stood.

She opened her mouth, clamping it shut as she smiled, dropping her gaze. "Um, I just wanted to say…" Her eyes flickered up at him, and she began to laugh timidly. "I never got the chance to thank you for what you did that one day, when I was, um, yeah… That was, well—you saved me from ever actually getting hit by a snowball and…" She shrugged, dropping her gaze, biting her bottom lip. "Just…thank you…" She slowly began walking backwards before fully turning around and walking away.

Jack just stared at her as she turned a corner. After a few seconds, he snickered at himself. He just had another opportunity open up to him for him to ask her what he wanted to know, yet he let it slip away right out of his hands. Glancing down to the papers he held, he looked back up to where he saw her disappear from his sight, beginning to head on his way. Well, at least he would no longer have to stress over what her face looked like. And this time, he wasn't going to forget it. And even if he tried, he wouldn't be able to, but he assumed otherwise.

As he walked to where he had parked his car beside the curb a little ways away from him, he fetched for his keys in his pockets. When he got in the car, he drove off and delivered the papers.

* * *

By the time it was beginning to get dark, Elsa had completed passing her flyers out. She was still in a state of shock that she actually ran into Jack and _talked _to him. She felt ridiculous because she got so nervous for no reason, and she had the hardest time looking him in the eyes. She felt like she could've handled their small conversation a little better…but what did it matter anyways? Didn't she completely cut him out of her life or something? _Yes, you did, _a voice in her head echoed in response. She heaved out a sigh, retracing her steps back to where she had parked her car. She just needed to stop worrying about Jack. After all, why worry about someone who probably won't ever give a care about you? Sure, he came to her aid during that snowball fight, and sure, that probably was out of concern, but that kind of care was only meant to last maybe an hour or so.

On Elsa's way back to her car, when she passed a certain café that she had taped one of her flyers to the glass window, she found that her flyer was missing. At first she thought that maybe she had skipped that place, but then when she found some leftover tape still on the clear glass that was shining a soft, yellow glow from the lights inside the warm café, she was proven otherwise. Maybe someone had recognized the small dog as their own then? She sighed. She'd just have to wait and see until she got a call…

For the next couple of days that passed by, Elsa never got the call she had been expecting. She asked Kai and Gerda if someone had possibly called while she was out, but they said no one had called. At this point, even though a day had passed since she handed out the flyers, she just knew that no one was going to call. It was just a feeling.

At the end of the day, Sunday night, since she had no desires to give the dog away to the pound or some neighbor, she resulted in naming the Great Pyrenees puppy, Marshmallow, and finalized her decision to keep him. Anna was more than pleased when she heard the news that they would be keeping Marshmallow, that is, of course, if no one called for him, which was already settled in a silent feeling that no one would. For the past few days Anna had just been nagging and telling Elsa that they just _had_ to keep him. And since earlier during the week, Elsa had already taken Marshmallow to get vaccinated and had gotten all of the things needed to care for him, it made her decision on keeping the dog that much more quicker and instant. Originally she planned on giving the stuff she had bought for Marshmallow to the owner, if there even was one, but she knew that there wasn't.

The reason why she named the small dog Marshmallow was because since the other day, when she was going through the cupboards, in search for some napkins, and she had accidentally caused the bag they had of jumbo white marshmallows to fall to the ground during the process, instantly, just like that, Marshmallow came dashing over and ran off with one oversized marshmallow in his mouth. She chased after him, but by the time she had caught him and pried his mouth open, he had already swallowed the marshmallow. Immediately after that, she freaked and searched the internet to make sure that she didn't need to do anything extreme to Marshmallow, like make him vomit what he had just eaten, and she made sure that Marshmallow eating a marshmallow wouldn't be considered poison like chocolate was for dogs. In the end, to her relief, it was okay that Marshmallow had eaten what he was named after.

That Sunday night, as Elsa lay in bed, she found that it was a lot harder to simply just let the way she handled her conversation with Jack on Friday slide. She still couldn't believe how timid and nervous she acted. Ugh…if only she never had made eye contact with him in the first place, then maybe he wouldn't have recognized her, and she could've gone on her jolly way in life, not ever knowing who she accidently bumped into. But really, it wasn't even her fault she looked at him. He was the one asking for it. Literally, though. Did he do that to ever girl he bumped into?

She let out an exasperated sigh, turning over onto her side. She was overthinking things, Jack needed to get out of her head, and she needed to get to sleep. She needed to _stop _thinking about this. She just needed to let this all go. This was probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime types of moments. After all, really, what were the chances she'd ever have another encounter with him like that? Ha, yeah…that was very unlikely…maybe.

* * *

**First off, I have to say: THANK YOU! Oh my gosh, your reviews made my day!**

**Secondly: Sorry! I know, I'm late, again. A lot has happened this past week, like...wow, yeah. I've been way busy with school, some events happened this week that consist of both sad and happy things, and I'm trying to improve on my lamesauce sleeping habits (I'm insanely terrible with going to bed before 12...haha, yeah, it's bad). From here, I should probably say my updates will slow down to about one chapter per week...however, I will try to get in two.**

**Haha, and was the conversation between Jack and Elsa awkward? ;D**

**Anyways, thanks so much for reading, and I will try to update soon!  
**


	19. Who Are You?

When Monday morning came around, Jack got up and did his usual routine for getting ready, which was simply figuring out what to wear and maybe brushing his hair out; normally his hair did its natural look on its own without any gels or sprays. By the time he came downstairs to have breakfast, he found there was an unexpected guest waiting for him: his little sister, Emma.

At first he completely walked right past her when he made his way to the kitchen, but when he saw that North was still home and hadn't gone to work yet, which it was a rare case for him to come down when North was still home (in the past, the only times when North was home by the time Jack came down in the mornings before school only meant there was a favor needed to be asked of him or someone special was here to visit him), he halted in his steps and his mind began to register everything he had just walked by, and he quickly realized he had blindly walked by his own sister. She wasn't even hiding or blending in with anything—she was standing out in the open.

As Jack turned around, Emma was already there, hugging him.

"Jack!" she exclaimed.

He stumbled back a bit, but hugged her back. "Hey," he grinned. Behind him, he could hear North laughing.

"Aww, it's like you're being reunited with your family again!" North bursted joyfully.

"Umm, North? I kind of am…" Jack informed.

"Oh? You are?—I mean, oh! Yes!" He smacked his forehead. "What was I thinking—you and your sister…long distance...right. I knew that."

"I'm sure you did," Jack nonchalantly stated.

"No—I really did—!" North persisted.

"I never said I denied you," Jack smugly grinned.

"Well, yeah—wait a second, Jack—" North began, but Jack quickly cut him off by beginning a conversation with his sister.

"So, Emma, where's Mom?" he questioned, pulling slightly back from her tight embrace as he looked down at her.

Emma loosened her grip and looked up at him with bright brown eyes. "She's visiting some schools to see if I can get transferred to this area!" she excitedly said.

"You guys are moving here?" Jack raised his eyebrows with a small grin.

"Well…maybe. She's not quite sure yet. She said, though, that I might be able to come live here with you and Uncle North!"

"Oh, really?! That's great!—but what about her?" Jack asked with stern ice blue eyes. A few years ago, when he was fourteen, he had to move here and live with North. Things weren't going so well money-wise with the bills, and since his birth dad's whereabouts have long been unknown, it was only his mother around who had to do all of the work. By the time it got to the point where Jack and Emma rarely ever saw their mom, Jack decided it was time for a change. He'd move out.

His mother at first denied it, but after he told her he already called North and had told him their situation and finalized the deal, there wasn't much she could do about it. She didn't even know how he had gained contact with North or even knew of him (Jack found some old pictures and on the back were the names of who was who). North was the only relative around and it was on his dad's side of the family; his mom was an only child. North eventually called their mom to make sure it was okay for Jack to come and stay with him and that he could help her out if she needed, but she didn't want to ask him of anything, and she thought it'd be good for Jack to have a fresh new start in a different area, living a different lifestyle, so she agreed and eventually North came around to pick Jack up.

At first Jack hated living with North, even though it was his idea that he moved out so that he could possibly lessen the burden of payments it was on his mom, but after a month or so, he learned that he actually really liked North. He was almost like the dad he never had, and as things turned out, North didn't even know the whereabouts of his birth father as well. But in the end, that thought of ever knowing who his birth father was faded away like a cut.

Every now and then, Jack would get visited by his sister and mother during breaks from school and such. Originally it was planned out that when his mother was doing better with the bills and payments, Jack would move back in. In the end, his mother decided it was best that he stayed there and said that she and Emma would visit often, and instead, possibly, consider moving around where he lived, although this idea never came across as a factual thing that could happen in Jack's mind, so that's why he was surprised to hear the news. Emma did have the option to come join him with North, but she said that she'd stay and keep their mother company. Over the years, when Jack would get a job over summer, he would send all of his paychecks to his mother to help out.

Because of the past and the fact that Jack didn't catch any information from his sister indicating that their mom wouldn't be living with them, he had to ask. He couldn't tell if this meant that their financial situation was improving or not.

"I'm not sure about her…" Emma slowly said. "I think she may stay in the area we live and continue working until she can get a job around here."

"Ah, I see," he nodded his head. "So are you staying overnight?"

"No…right now we're only visiting. She'll be back around noon, I think…" Emma dropped her gaze, beginning to pull on her auburn hair, her side bangs getting in her eyes.

Jack pursed his lips, rubbing the back of his neck as he thought things over. He wanted to spend time with her, but he still had school. What was more important to him? A small lopsided grin formed on his face and he leaned over, brushing Emma's bangs out of her face. "Hey, why don't we go out and spend the day with each other?"

She lifted her eyes, her face lighting up. "Really? Are you sure? Don't you have school?"

"Don't _you _have school?" he snorted, crossing his arms.

"No—we got called that today would be a snow day, and that school was canceled," she shrugged.

Jack opened his mouth, but North's voice sounded off first. "What?! Really?! Psssh—I bet you barely even have an inch of snow on the ground! Look over here! We have at least six! And do we ever get snow days?! No. We don't!" he threw his hands up.

Jack glanced back at North with a chuckle. "Uh, yeah. What he said."

Emma giggled. "Yeah, we actually barely do have an inch of snow…"

"See?! What did I tell you!—oh, and I've got to get to work! I've already postponed enough time! Those yetis need my guidance!" and with that said, he rushed out the door, grabbing his big coat and hat. "Oh, and have a nice day!" he poked his head in before heading on his way. Jack shook his head with a grin.

"'Yetis'?" Emma blinked.

"Ha, yeah," Jack patted his sister on the shoulder, rolling his eyes playfully, "that's what he likes to call them—and it's in no harmful way either."

"Oh? So the people that work for him don't mind?"

Jack sucked in a deep breath, the warm smell of cookies filling his nose. North often liked to make cookies at least every once a month. It was his "tradition" or something, and the smell stayed permanent as the home-natural smell somehow. "Nope," Jack snickered, "now go get your shoes and coat on—or just whatever you need—we'll talk more in the car. Oh, and have you had breakfast yet?"

Emma shook her head, grabbing her white jacket that was draped over a stool and slipped it on.

"Good—I haven't either," he smiled, hanging his arm around her shoulders as he guided her out the door and grabbed his car keys. School could wait.

* * *

Elsa held her breath as she stuck her hand inside the white gift bag and picked out the last, small, folded piece of paper. Everyone was finally drawing out what they were expected to dress up as today and supposedly everyone would get someone or something different to dress up as. Elsa stared down at the only option she had from inside the gift bag; she sat at the front row on the very right, and the white bag started on the left side and snaked its way to her, which was why she had only one option: she was the last girl to get the bag. Pursing her lips, she peered around at her fellow classmates, watching as the majority of the girls gasped with a small grin and immediately began to share around with each other, whereas the boys seemed to do the same, except their expressions stayed fairly laid back and a few got confused faces.

"Attention, class!" Ms. Gordon called out as she picked up the white gift bag off of Elsa's desk and walked over to the other side and picked up the beige gift bag up from off of that student's desk; the white bag was for the girls to pick out of and the beige bag was for the boys to pick out of. "I know how much you just _want _to go chattering about with this sort of news and text your lovely little girlfriends or boyfriends or whatever you want to call them, but we have a class to start and—"

"Um, what if I got a girl character?" a boy from the back of the room suddenly spoke up. A few chuckles erupted throughout the room. "No, I'm not joking! I got—" he quickly glanced down at his paper "—Red Riding Hood…" He slowly glanced up with a concerned face. "I'm pretty sure that's a girl."

"Oh, did I not mention this?" Ms. Gordon looked around the classroom, meeting blank stares. "Boys, if you got what seems to be a girl name on your drawn out slip that just means you're supposed to match your colors and dress up as, I guess, the soul mate you'd think would go with that character." Another boy hesitantly began to raise his hand, opening his mouth, but Ms. Gordon quickly cut him off, adding, "Oh, and I know not all of you got character names—some of you may have gotten something like...a cloud or a ghost…maybe even a cockroach, if you're really that unfortunate…" The boy who had his hand halfway raised slowly put it down and glanced down at his slip with a bit of a grimace. "This was mentioned earlier, but just in case you may have forgotten—you dress up as best as you can to resemble that thing you've got," she explained, glancing around the classroom. "Now, take one last look at those lovely slips because you're not going to see them until my class is over. Also, don't lose those—those slips are your tickets into the dance." She flashed a quick smile before walking over to her desk and grabbed her clicker, turning the projector connected to the ceiling on.

"I got Princess Fiona," Elsa heard a girl whisper from behind her.

"Lucky, can we switch? I got…a troll," she heard another girl say.

"Ew!—no way!" the first girl hissed.

She heard the second girl sigh, but then suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder. She stiffened. _Oh no…_ Slowly Elsa turned her head, meeting a pair of desperate bright green eyes.

"Hey, um, Elsa, right? You know I really like your hair—"

"Oh, stop being such a suck-up, Hilary—sorry that she bothered you, Elsa—do you really think she would ever switch slips with you?"

Elsa blinked, slowly turning her head straight forward as she heard Hilary moan: "Ugh! But I really, _really _don't want to be a _troll_…"

"Well, you know you have a choice—you don't have to be that—it's not like you're breaking the law," the first girl sighed.

"Well, yeah…but I want to follow by with what my slip says—I feel like I'd be breaking some sort of secret law if I didn't dress up as…_a troll_," the second girl sneered.

A troll…? Elsa pursed her lips. So…was that seriously something someone could get? Did that mean someone could get something like…a doorknob or—or the Grinch? Most importantly, what did _she _get?

Elsa glanced down at the small slip she had subconsciously been crinkling in between both of her hands. She clenched her teeth, feeling a bit nervous to pull her hands away and reveal who she really was…well, who her character or thing or whatever it was she had chosen to be at this masquerade ball. Taking in a deep breath, she simply just stared at her hands, waiting for them to move, but they were frozen in place.

_What is your problem?_ a voice from inside scolded._ Don't you remember? You're not going to that collaboration school dance with DreamWorks High… You do remember what happened that one time some guests from DreamWorks High came along to a school dance you were at, right? Don't be stupid Elsa…don't be stupid. You're not going, so you don't need to be nervous about who you got._

That's right…what was she worrying about? If she's not going, then why was she getting nervous? It really wasn't that hard to read something that you weren't really going to be…that paper wasn't depicting her future like some crystal ball. She _shouldn't _be anxious. _That is, of course, if she were actually considering going… _No, no…she wasn't going…of course not… She had no reason to go.

Exhaling out abruptly, she briefly glanced up at Ms. Gordon, who was still preoccupied with trying to get the projector going, before dropping her gaze down to her hands. Swallowing, she huffed out a breath and gritted her teeth, and slowly her fingers began to pull away, straightening out the creases she had made in the small paper…but she had her eyes closed. When she felt her fingers reaching the ends of the poor, crumpled up piece of paper, she forced her eyes to slowly open.

At first it was a blur, but slowly the slip of paper she held came into perfect vision. And when it did, her heart dropped and the butterflies she was beginning to feel flutter in her stomach just died. It was blank. Elsa's face contorted, and she couldn't help but feel a small weight of disappointment press down on her shoulders. So…she was nothing. She was nobody. Furrowing her eyebrows, she grimaced and quickly glanced to her left. The seat beside her was empty, but the one next to it a brown-haired girl sat, grinning madly as she stared at her s lip. On it, Elsa could see some black print.

She abruptly leaned back in her seat, letting her grip go on the slip of paper. Pursing her lips, she slowly nodded her head. Well, wasn't this just peachy. She was probably the only one who got a blank slip. She shook her head, glancing at the crinkled slip sourly, suddenly noticing the crease down the middle of the paper was inversed. Immediately she brought her hand up to slap her forehead, but quickly halted her motion just when her hand was a mere centimeter away and slowly transitioned her movement so she was running her hand down her hair. Awkwardly, she quickly glanced around the room, a small smile forming on her face. She felt so silly. Of course! Of course the paper was facing the wrong way.

Snickering lightly at herself, she grabbed the paper, freezing up once again. This was it. Blinking, beginning to quickly believe that on the other side of the slip it was a big blank space as well, she swiftly flipped it over. Her heart just about stopped when she saw the three printed words neatly beside each other:

**The Snow Queen**

She at first began to smile, but just as quickly as it had begun to form, it melted away.

Wait…was this some sort of coincidence? Or was it a joke? Or maybe it was just luck. She got something she actually liked…but then maybe people specifically chose what they chose so she could get this… But no one here at Disney High went to her same elementary school, excluding her sister, Rapunzel, and Flynn. They wouldn't know...at least they shouldn't know. Their minds were a lot more mature now, and they don't have their hearts set in stone with what they think of her from their childhood, for they didn't even know her then. They wouldn't think that her loving winter was an insane thing, they wouldn't think that the fact that she was perfectly okay with the cold was absolutely abnormal and she must have some serious mental problems, they would _not_ believe she was a delusional freak for still continuing to do figure skating because she apparently was "terrible" at it, and most of all, they wouldn't believe her heart was made of ice—black ice—because clearly, everything about her with the snow, winter, and cold all meant she was some evil snow witch.

She was safe here at Disney High. The people here were good, and if not that, they had something good about them…even Hans had something good, despite her discrete dislike towards him. He just struggled _horribly_ knowing when it was time to stop and when it was time to say no. He just didn't know how to show good in the right way. At least that's what she liked to assume so her dislike towards him wouldn't turn into hatred.

Taking in a deep breath, she quickly crumpled the slip and shoved it into her pocket the moment she heard the voice of her teacher.

"Now that my technicality difficulties have been resulted, _and _that I hope all of you have placed your slips somewhere that won't distract you," she eyed Elsa, causing her to fidget in her seat uncomfortably, "let us begin this amazingly, fantastic session I have prepared for you."

Eventually when lunch came around, Elsa was finally relieved to go off alone in her own peace outside. All day so far, as expected, all she heard in the hallways were whispers and giggles of fairy tale names, creatures, and all sorts of other things people could dress up as in avant-garde clothing. Now instead of people just simply talking about this _Charme _Masquerade Ball like it was an actual, majestic, royal ball where magic happens and where "dreams come true" and Mr. Prince Charming will be there already ready to pull out the ring and slip it on the lucky girl to be his queen, even though he had no idea who she was because her mask concealed her identity, but it didn't matter because he fell in love with her inner beauty, and that meant that her outer beauty was an automatic, rare beauty only true love could reveal, they were topping it off like it were some kind of dessert, adding in special bonuses by also talking about what they were going to wear and how they'd look, and who they hoped they would attract. And for someone who originally had plans to not go…well…it only made them want to go.

The more Elsa heard people talk about this masquerade ball, the more she was actually considering going…and she wasn't sure if that really was a good thing. Well, actually it was more of the fact that she was afraid of her own reasons as to why she wanted to go. Her ears picked out Jack's name more than she liked them to. His name was practically a needle out of a haystack, and the fact that she was actually catching his name almost every second, whether or not she was hearing things or not…it just wasn't right. Was it because of that second encounter or…

Elsa sighed as she began pushing the doors open that lead outside. The fact that she kept hearing Jack's name everywhere wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the fact that she couldn't concentrate at all because her mind kept wandering back to him. But she didn't have a choice—she couldn't stop hearing his name—she couldn't block him out. The only time her mind was free of him was when she and everyone else was picking out their slips and this morning, of course, because she hadn't heard his name then.

"Elsa! Wait!"

Elsa froze up, trying to suppress a groan. Scrunching up her face, she turned around with a smile. "Hey…Rapunzel…" She tried to be uplifting.

"Where are you going? We have some talking to do," Rapunzel grinned brightly. Her bright eyes flickered to Elsa's hands that slightly held the door open and her face slightly fell. "Oh…were you…were you going somewhere?" She cocked her head.

Elsa opened her mouth, glancing outside at the snow, then back at her friend. She really just wanted to have some time to think things over by herself… She sighed, dropping her gaze.

"Oh, well, you know, it's okay. I can always catch you after school…right? I mean you clearly have somewhere to go—it's okay," Rapunzel shrugged optimistically. After a short moment of silence, she then added: "Okay, well, see you later then…" And she slowly began walking away.

Elsa pursed her lips, taking in a deep breath. "Rapunzel wait…" She watched as her brown-haired friend turned around with hopeful eyes. Smiling, Elsa shrugged, "Uh, if you wanted, you could come along with me…I, uh, I was just going to go take a walk…outside."

A small sweet smile lit Rapunzel's face up. "Aw, c'mon," she grabbed Elsa's hand and dragged her outside, "let's go out and get something to eat. It's been a while since we've done one of these."

.

Elsa immediately slipped her thin coat off as she seated herself on the silver highchair beside the tall, round, small table. She took a good long look at her surroundings inside the self-served, frozen yogurt place. It'd been a while since she and Rapunzel came to this place. They often came here when Flynn was still a part of their little friendship... which was slowly turning into five whole years. Overall, it's been a while since she's eaten out at any public food place in general. Ever since Anna started Disney High for her first school year here, she had slowly stopped coming to hang out with Rapunzel during lunch because, well, Anna would be there because she wanted to spend time with her—the only person she knew left in their small thing you'd call a "family."

Part of her reason for avoiding her own sister was out of habit—Elsa still felt the need to stay away from Anna—but she was working on that—sort of... The main real reason was because she just couldn't talk to her about certain things. Anna liked to ask questions and reminisce things. Some things were better left in the past, buried deep within the ground, and some things were just better left unknown overall. She didn't want to have to lie to her own sister, for she was too embarrassed about the truth, and she didn't want Anna to see her any different or feel the need to treat her like glass like their parents did. So, she figured the only way she could avoid having that happen was not talk to her at all. Or at least keep it to a minimal amount. She really did enjoy just sitting down and talking with Anna…but every time she did, she felt like she was on edge. She felt uncomfortable. Rarely did she ever feel normal and comfortable, and the times she would feel like this were only when she would forget about what could happen and how things could turn out.

Not very many people actually knew that she and Anna were sisters. Only those who lived in their neighborhood and were close enough to them or were able to piece their last names together knew. Everything about her relationship with Anna was still, simply, all in one word: complicated. And she knew she could do better than this—she _should _do better than this—but she just couldn't.

"Wow!—it really hasn't changed much here, huh?" Rapunzel set her small cup of frozen yogurt on the tabletop as she climbed up to sit on the highchair across from Elsa's. When she settled down, she grabbed the plastic pink spook sticking out of her frozen yogurt and scooped up a small amount, placing it in her mouth.

Elsa grinned, too grabbing her plastic spoon, which was colored a light blue, and grabbed her small cup, twirling her spoon in the frozen yogurt.

As Rapunzel pulled her spoon out of her mouth, she joked, "Nothing keeps your warmer than frozen yogurt on a nice, winter, insanely cold day."

Elsa merely glanced up and smiled, before dropping her gaze back down.

"You know, I still don't get why Eugene had to—" Rapunzel abruptly shook her head— "You know what? Screw him—what did you get?"

"Hm?" Elsa tilted her head, pulling her blue spoon out of her mouth. "I'm sorry, but what do you mean, 'What did you get?'"

"Oh, c'mon—you don't—I'm talking about those slips everyone got to draw out this morning!" Rapunzel scooped a large amount of her frozen yogurt and stuffed it in her mouth happily.

"Oh," Elsa lightly laughed, "that…" Right. She had nearly forgotten about that. Sighing, she glanced out the glass window beside her, staring at the snowflakes that were softly falling down like a delicate feathers. "I got…the Snow Queen," she softly snickered. "Can you believe it?" Her eyes flickered over to Rapunzel.

Rapunzel opened her mouth with a wide grin, but paused. "Wait, this is a good thing, right? I mean, I think it's great, it suits you—and I didn't mean it in that way!—but I like it, like it's a good—"

"It's okay, Rapunzel. I'm happy with who I got," Elsa softly smiled. "I was lucky."

"Oh, my gosh, _yeah_, you are! _Oh, _you are never gonna believe who _I _got!" Rapunzel slapped her hand against the glass tabletop, crossing her arms afterwards.

"You got…Rapunzel?" Elsa guessed. If she got lucky, maybe Rapunzel did as well. It was just a guess.

Rapunzel gawked. "_Oh! I wish!—" _she suddenly gasped— "You know, I'm going to go hunt down whoever has that and try and trade with them because _honestly, _who wants _Gretel?_" she grumpily spat, slamming down her slip on the tabletop, trying to suppress a ridiculed grin at who she received.

Elsa gave her a sympathetic smile, leaning forward to look at the small, neatly folded slip; hers was all crumpled. "So, like, Hansel and Gretel?" she asked, picking up the slip and examining each letter on it. Well, Gretel wasn't _that_ bad. The girl that sat behind her got a troll, and out of the two, she without a doubt would definitely not choose the latter.

"_Yes!_" Rapunzel threw her hands up. She then abruptly leaned over the table with wide eyes. "And you know, when I was younger, I always thought Hansel was the girl and Gretel was the boy because, well, I don't know—Hansel sounded like a prettier name than Gretel!" She slumped back in her seat, crossing her arms. "Well, really both names you can't tell with whose belongs to a girl or a boy because, well…I don't know." She huffed, shaking her head. "Stupid Grimm brothers. Trying to make my life immensely that much _harder. _I mean—I'm not ungrateful—I'm just…a little…disappointed."

Elsa returned Rapunzel's slip, who took it reluctantly. "The story is German, I think, so I'm pretty sure that makes their names German, and maybe if you were German, you'd be able to tell. I don't know." She watched as Rapunzel frowned, but quickly changed her expression.

"Hey, you know we can always switch…"

Elsa opened her mouth, not sure of what to say.

"Nah—I'm joking! Plus you'd look amazing in some fancy dress that resembles this Snow Queen! In fact, you really have the perfect structure and your _hair _would be absolutely gorgeous!" Rapunzel gushed, finishing off what was left in her small cup of frozen yogurt.

Elsa sucked in a deep breath, the sweet smell of vanilla filling her nose just before she exhaled out. "Ha…yeah…maybe I would… But I'm not going." It's probably best if she didn't go, even if she wanted to.

"What?! No! Why?! No!—_No!_ You are going! Elsa—! I will seriously drag you out of your house, dress you up, do your hair and makeup, and pull you over to that building they're having this dance at," Rapunzel sternly stated. "It's final. You're going."

"Rapunzel—" Elsa tried to deny.

"Nope."

Elsa opened her mouth to speak.

"Nope. I'm not having any of this. You are going."

Elsa's jaw fell agape with a slight look of disbelief, but underneath it all, she was beginning to grin.

"Oh, _c'mon! _I know you want to go!" Rapunzel pressed.

"No, I don't!" Elsa lied, dropping her gaze down to her frozen yogurt she had barely eaten. It was probably a bad idea if she went.

"Don't lie! You totally do!" Rapunzel persisted.

"No—"

"Ah—" Rapunzel cut off— "Yes, you do. It'll be fun and exciting and different…and right now, I think everyone around here needs it. Especially you. You barely go out on dates, interact with boys, or do any of that normal lovey-dovey girl stuff! Please, just come. This is our last year as seniors and you're probably never going to get this chance again. We should be making the best of our memories and this is a great chance to gain some awesome memories."

Elsa pursed her lips. That was true—this was probably her only opportunity to ever go to such a dance like this and this was their last year. She did want to go and she really didn't have that good of a reason to not go—plus this was a much better reason as to why she would want to go compared to her last one…

"Okay, I'll go," Elsa lightly smiled.

"Yay!" Rapunzel squealed. "Oh, my gosh! This is going to be so much fun!" Her eyes suddenly widened and she gasped excitedly. "Have you gotten your dress yet?! Well, what am I talking about?!—of course not! We should go shopping together! You know! Like old times! It'll be great! Now we have an actual reason to go to those fancy, expensive stores and purchase one of those dresses! Yay! Oh—" she pulled out her phone "—and it's time to go! School's going to start soon! C'mon!" She hopped off her seat, grabbing her empty cup with the biggest grin.

Elsa managed a small grin in return, slowly peering out the window at the falling snow.

"Well, are you coming?"

She turned her head, finding Rapunzel ready to head out the glass door. Nodding her head with a sigh, she jumped off her highchair, quickly grabbing her jacket and small cup of frozen yogurt, and headed out with Rapunzel.

"Rapunzel! When you said school was going to start soon, I thought that meant we'd have some time—like, at least two or maybe even five minutes left until the lunch bell rang!" Elsa cried as she and Rapunzel rushed up the stairs as quickly and carefully as they could. Normally she didn't struggle getting to school on time, but this year she was slightly beginning to have some problems.

"Well, look on the bright side?" Rapunzel tried to smile optimistically. "We still have like, two ore maybe less minutes to get to our classes—like at least we have _some _time…?"

Elsa just rolled her eyes, throwing open the door on the right side while Rapunzel went through the left door. "Yeah, we have probably a minute or less left now," she huffed. She was really going to have to book it to her class if she wanted to get there on time.

"I'm really sorry, Elsa," Rapunzel apologized.

"No, no—it's fine—I wasn't even paying much attention to the time—it's not your fault," Elsa quickly said, noticing that the amount of people in the hallways was really thin. She really needed to start running…

"Well, it's not your fault either, okay? My class is right here—do you think you'll make it on time?"

Elsa shrugged, having a look of doubt on her face as she stared down the long hallway. Her class was practically on the other end. She probably wasn't going to make it…but she'd test her luck. If she even had any.

"Okay, well, I'll see you after school!" Rapunzel called out, right before she headed inside her classroom.

Elsa nodded, quickly breaking out into a run down the hallway—she seemed to be the only one left. She definitely was going to be late to her next class… As she neared a turn she had to take and began turning, she suddenly rammed into someone and rebounded backwards, losing her balance. When she found herself on the ground, she quickly looked up to see who she had run into. Immediately her stomach flipped at the sight.

"Oh, my—I'm so sorry—here, let me help you—"

"No, no, no—it's fine, uh, Hans, I can get up perfectly fine by myself," Elsa grunted, ignoring his outstretched hand, tempted to smack it away but didn't, and heaved herself up on her own. _What was he doing? Why did he have to inconveniently get in her way? _Now she was just annoyed.

"Oh, well, I can see that…" Hans suddenly gave her an interesting look. "Your Anna's sister, right?"

She furrowed her eyebrows as she began to dust herself off. Since when did he know this? "Yeah…" She slowly said.

"Oh, well it's nice to meet you…?" He waited for her to finish it off.

She pursed her lips. "Elsa," she mumbled, crossing her arms as soon as she was done dusting herself off. She looked up at him. He was about the same height as Jack.

"Ah, Elsa—right…yes… It's nice to meet you, Elsa. You know you have a lovely sister—she is quite the charmer…" He slowly fixed his soft green eyes on her.

She locked eyes with him, unable to unlock her eyes with him. Opening her mouth, the bell suddenly rang. She blinked. _Shoot…_ She completely forgot she was in a hurry! Ugh! One more reason as to why she disliked Hans!

"Oh, dear," he checked his gold watch, "well, it looks like I've made you late…"

Oh, and now he was just mocking her. She gritted her teeth, trying her best to not snap at him. "It's okay," she forced out through clenched teeth. "I would've probably been late anyways…"

"Hmm, maybe." He flashed her a smile she's seen a thousand girls swoon over. This only made her uncomfortable and timid.

"Okay, well I have to get going to my next class, so…bye," she tried to smile, pulling off a small gentle grin. She quickly walked past him, her smile instantly dropping. _Nice try, _she inwardly glared. What did her sister even see in him? What did any girl see in him? He wasn't _that _impressive.

"Oh—Elsa?" she heard him call out to her.

She clenched her hands, swinging her head around. What did he want? She just wanted to get to her next class and be done with school and continue on with her isolated life.

"I'll see you around," he smiled.

She returned his smile, turning around, her smile quickly fading. She just said goodbye…couldn't he have said that to her when she said it and then she wouldn't have to waste her time, just for him to say his farewells when she was already a good few feet away from him? She exhaled out deeply, quickly heading off to her last class period of the day.

Hans just stood there, staring at her as she walked away. By the time she was out of sight, he turned on his heel, stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and walked away.

* * *

After Jack had to say his goodbyes to his mom and sister, there was just enough time for him to go to his last class period, which was practically a waste of time for him when he did choose to go, since the whole entire class period all he thought about was his mom and sister. He still was a little dazed at the news he heard and he was more than excited. There was an actual possibility he'd be able to live them again. And even though he didn't express too much enthusiasm, he really was hoping that he'd be able to spend more time with them before it was time for him to go off to college.

After what?—four or five years?—something like that—pretty much after all this time apart from them, there was finally that actual possibility. And true, little sisters (such as Emma) could get annoying…but that's what they do. All they want to do is spend time with you, and now he had matured old enough to a certain degree to actually realize this. He's kind of actually missed having to spend time with her and lookout for her, even though she's caused quite a few troubles in the past…

The bell suddenly rang, snapping Jack out of his thoughts. When he looked up, he was just barely able to catch his teacher say something about not having any homework while his much too eager classmates hurried out of the classroom. Gathering his things quickly, he followed the small crowd out the doors, but just before he exited, Gobber, his teacher, who was the only teacher he's ever met out of his three years at DreamWorks High that's persisted that their students call them by their first name, called out to him. Gobber was a bit of a queer teacher, to say things in the uttermost humble way, but he was a good one in a well-humored way as well, which was part of the reason why he even bothered to come to his last class period; there was always something to laugh about when he came.

Sucking in a deep breath, Jack turned on his heels, raising his eyebrows. "Yes?"

"Ah, well, I just wanted to say that I've noticed that you've been gone for the first three classes of the day…? Is there any particular reason that I should be worried about you and this whole…class-missing-thing going on?" Gobber flashed a toothy grin.

This only made Jack chuckle. "Uh, yeah—I was spending time with my family, that's all. Nothing to worry about," he smiled reassuringly.

"_Oh?! _Family!—well—I knew you'd have a good reason, Frosty!" Gobber laughed. "But some of them teachers didn't believe me!—but I knew otherwise! Ha, well, I suggest you go check up on some of those classes that you've missed—it's a bad case when you come unprepared to class!" His eyes widened and he shuddered like he had a bad memory spreading bad vibes throughout his body. "Don't want to go there—_ever!_ I highly suggest you go check to see if you've got any new assignments—!" he leaned in, cupping his hand over his mouth, whispering, "some teachers can be real scary! I tell ya! Be care, Frosty!"

Jack nodded his head as he laughed, "I'll keep that in mind."

"Well, drive safely home—lucky you!—you don't have all of _this —" _he waved his hand and hook all around a large pile of papers "—to grade! Never become a teacher, Frosty! I don't even know why _I _became a teacher! I don't even know why I bother with homework assignments! I'm just cursing myself by giving myself extra work!"

"Yeah, well, have fun and good luck with that…" He smirked, eyeing the large pile of papers on Gobber's desk.

"Oh, yes—thanks, Frosty! I needed that! Now get out of here—I'd hate to be keeping you from visiting your oh-so lovely teachers!" Gobber shooed off, taking a seat at his messy desk with the stack of papers. "Oh, Odin, kill me now," he muttered, shaking his head as he stared horrifically at the pile of papers stacked before him.

Jack shook his head, chuckling as he headed out the door. He decided that he'd take Gobber's words and visit the class periods he missed. It really was best if he didn't have his work begin to pile up on him anyway.

On his whole journey starting with his third class period and going backwards back to his first class, to his surprise, he had no interruptions. He didn't catch sight of Tooth, Kristoff, Hiccup, Sandy, or even _Pitch. _It was a smooth cruise all the way through his visits to each class period. It was a little weird. And to add to the strangeness of it all, he noticed a lot of people holding these small, white slips of paper, along with the fact that he kept noticing girls stare and glance at him as he passed them by…

When he arrived at his last stop, which was his first class period, he found his teacher was pulling up the projector screen. He cleared his throat to get her attention. When she caught sight of him, she greeted him. He went through the routine he accustomed through his small journey, by saying the exact words of: "Did I miss anything I need to know?" His teacher shook her head "No" in response, but paused right afterwards, appearing like something out of the ordinary had just occurred to her.

"Actually, Jack, before you go, I do have something for you."

This caused Jack to cock his head a little, and he stepped forward a little. "Okay…"

He watched as Ms. Maria rushed in her heels over to her desk and rushed back over to him, handing him a sealed envelope with his name scribbled on it in pen. He took the envelope, glancing at her with a look of confusion.

"This has your slip," she informed him.

He looked down at the envelope, looking up at her with a suppressed confused look. "Right," he grinned awkwardly. He had no idea what she meant…but he was just going to play it off with a grin.

"Uh, this—do not lose—oh, and if I's a girl name, don't fret, as some of your fellow classmates seemed to overreact—if it's a girl name, that just means you dress up as what you'd imagine would be her 'Prince Charming,' as people would put it—and yes, there will be other things, rather than just people," she began to explain to him.

He slowly nodded his head, barely able to manage a grin that indicated any signs that he was confused. "Okay, okay…I won't lose this," he reassured as he backed away, beginning to leave her classroom. He stared down at the envelope for a moment. Should he open it? He pursed his lips and folded it, stuffing it in his back jean pockets.

"See you next class, Jack," he heard his teacher call out to him.

He simply gave her a small wave and smile before he headed out the doors, feeling as clueless as ever. He then looked for anyone of his friends, hoping they'd shine some light on him due to his darkness on what this slip was, but to his dismay and strange luck, he didn't find anyone he was looking for. Either he was blind, or they were blind. Or maybe they were avoiding him. But he highly doubted that.

When he gave up his mini search, he decided he'd simply go home. He was extremely surprised that he hadn't received any text messages from anyone or any calls, but as he settled down in his room and pulled out his black cell phone, he found that his phone had been in mute this whole time. There were 27 missed calls, 11 voicemails, and 19 text messages he had been missing out on. As it turned out, everyone he had been looking for was looking for him, and somehow through it all, they were blind about seeing each other or never crossed paths at all. The first few text messages asked him: "Who/what did you get?" The rest was practically all: "Where the heck are you?"

Since he still was puzzled about what these slips were about, he texted back to Tooth and asked her what she meant. When he got her reply, he just about face-palmed himself as he read her message over.

_The masquerade…what else?_

He felt so stupid! How could he forget? He passed so many signs for that event and he even knew from according to what he heard from last week that the slips for what or who people would be would get handed out _today. _This was something that everyone had been looking forward to. How could he, of all people, forget?

Sighing, Jack ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head as he sat down on the edge of his bed. "How could you be so stupid?" he groaned. He sucked in a deep breath, holding it in for a second or two before he let it go. He then froze. _The envelope. _It had his slip in it.

He quickly pulled the folded envelope out of his back pocket. Eagerly he ripped it open, finding a small folded piece of paper in it. Picking it out, he set the torn envelope beside him and took a moment to breathe before he opened the slip. As he read it over, recalling a few words from his teacher, he leaned back a bit. Well, it looked like he was going to be wearing white to the masquerade ball.

* * *

**Okay. Wow. I don't remember if I've already said this, but it's worth saying again: I love you guys! You're all so flipping awesome! You don't even know! Haha, maybe some of you do... ;D**

**Anyways, I'll just say this, to those of you who may actually read my author notes: from here on out, the stuff I put in italicize in author notes are just explanations and reasons for why I did stuff, if you maybe ever were curious. So if you don't want to know, then don't read the stuff in italics. :) Pretty much the things that are just plain bold are the stuff that I want you to know and are more important.**

_**About Marshmallow: I forgot to mention this last chapter, but for those of you who don't know, Marshmallow is actually the name of that one lovely snow dude Anna throws a snowball at and ticks off. :) Haha, so, yeah. I didn't just so happen to choose Marshmallow as a name by random, and I chose the Great Pyrenees for a reason. You should seriously look up videos on YouTube of puppies for that breed. I really just about died watching them.**_

_**About Jack's father: I really didn't want to make the character for Jack's father appear "bad." I was considering just saying the dad died,rather hint that he left them, because honestly I feel like Jack's mom would be such a sweetheart (even though her character isn't emphasized in the movie), and I absolutely do not wish the worst upon her. But then I don't think Jack would ever have a reason to go stay with North, if the absence of his father was because he had died. I have some cousins whose dad died when they were fairly young (so now it's been quite some time), and their insurance or the state (I don't know exactly) had paid my aunt some money to help her situation out to make up for all that her husband could've helped pay for, but now can't. Haha, and according to my parents, her family is doing the best with money. So I guess to say things simple: she's the richest out of her siblings. ;D And of course I could've had Jack's father be alive, but I just don't see Jack as someone who ever knew their birth father, you know? Maybe?**_

**_About Jack's sister: As you may know, his sister doesn't have an official name. At least as far as I'm aware of, she doesn't. I tried looking it up and came across this trivia quiz, so I took the quiz because it had a question asking what was Jack's sister's name, and there were four options...apparently I chose the "correct" name, so I just used that name. Ha, yeah. So Emma is a possibly real name for her, but I don't think she's got an actual, official name. But she does look like an Emma, don't you think? That's why I picked that name... But when you think about it, she could look like a Mckenna or maybe even a Carly. She even looks like she could have my actual name. But Emma, I think fits pretty darn good._  
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**Anyways, thanks so much for reading and reviewing! I hope you liked this chapter! I'm sorry if there are any mistakes. I kinda just skimmed over it. I actually took out a lot of parts from this chapter. It was weird. I never have to take out so much writing.**


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